A top Blackstone Inc.’s executive said on Tuesday that India will continue to be the company’s biggest market in Asia and the private equity giant may give a thought to infrastructure investments there in the future.
The U.S.-based company, which makes almost a trillion dollars in assets globally, said that India is one of its best-performing markets. at a news briefing, Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, said that the company is bullish on the South Asian nation because of its faster growth than other large countries and a “government oriented toward growth.”
According to Gray, “India is a major part of the anchor of our Asia strategy. Japan and Australia follow that.” The company said it manages assets worth $50 billion in India, which consists of overall private equity and real estate. Reuters’ report stated that Blackstone has exceeded a billion dollars in real estate share sales alone last year.
In India, it’s private equity deals valued upto $32 billion last year, a 27 per cent plunge from 2021. But, India’s share of total Asia funding surged up to 25 per cent from 16 per cent in the same period.
The COO said that Blackstone will further look forward to investing in Indian infrastructure in the future, a sector where its rivals such as KKR and Co. as well as pension funds, including the CPP Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, are already active.
Although Blackstone remains bullish on India, Gray said more predictability around tax and capital market laws will help increase foreign investments in India.
“Capital markets have many more rules in India,” he said, making exits difficult.
However, the company is taking a selective approach in China, as geopolitical factors have made it difficult to invest in the world’s second-largest economy, Gray said, in a rare public comment about investing in China, which is aiming to boost its economy after it recorded one of its worst growth levels last year, owing to the covid 19 pandemic, for the first time in nearly half a century.
According to the Refinitiv data report, Private equity-backed mergers and takeovers in China plummeted 67% in 2022 year on year, totaling $36 billion. It’s share in Asia’s total private equity deal value went down to 28% in 2022 from 41% in 2021, as per the data.
The U.S. government has been stiffening scrutiny over U.S. investments in China as tensions over trade and technology remain in existence. It was reported by Reuters last week that the U.S. government and its administration plans to ban investments in some Chinese technology companies and increase scrutiny of others.
