(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Inc. is seeking minority stakes in companies to capture technological advances in India, even as global investors grow cautious after a short seller report rattled the empire of one of the nation's richest men.
“Obviously the events of the last few weeks have probably made global investors a little more cautious,” said Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer of the firm that manages almost $1 trillion of assets across various strategies. “I think because of all the entrepreneurship and technology strength - growth would be a natural place for us to expand.”
India, Blackstone's second-largest market outside of the US, has generated the highest private-equity returns for the firm, Gray said at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday. The US investment manager has roughly $50 billion of assets across its private equity and real estate portfolios in the country, he said.
Since its first growth-equity investment last year, the firm has invested in online dating app Bumble Inc. and oat milk maker Oatly Group AB, among others.
Blackstone invests in India through its Asia funds, of which the country accounted for nearly half the capital deployment across private equity and real estate, Gray said.
The firm will write checks of about $150 million for a minority position in potential opportunities, said Amit Dixit, head of Asia for Blackstone Private Equity. The $11 billion Asia fund has barely started deploying capital, he said.
According to Gray, the valuations in India don't look excessive for private equity and real estate, even though multiples can be higher than by US and European standards.
While sentiment in India took a hit after US-based Hindenburg Research on Jan. 24 accused the Adani Group of share manipulation and fraud — charges the conglomerate denies — the country's benchmark Sensex index has since recovered.
“When these kind of things happen, it just raises the bar for everyone, and forces people to operate at a certain standard” Gray said.
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