Blackstone has $100-billion plans for India in 5 years, says COO Jonathan Gray

Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, aims to double its investment in India to $100 billion in about five years, chief operating officer Jonathan Gray said in an interview.

"It could be in private equity, could be real estate. We're going to be expanding here in infrastructure. We're looking to expand in credit. I think growth equity is an opportunity," said Gray, 56. "In five years, we'd love that number to be $100 billion," from $50 billion now.

He's not too worried about the exodus of overseas investors from the Indian stock market, predicting they'll likely be back soon. "Public market investors can be fickle. There was a simple narrative last year, which is that India is an importer of a lot of energy, and energy costs are going up; that made investors cautious," he said. "But the public markets can fall back into love again too. If earnings growth, which I think is expected this quarter to be mid-teens, continues, then you'll see global investors come back."


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Apart from its inherent strength, the Indian market is also the easiest place after the US to list, allowing early investors an exit avenue. "People in India don't fully appreciate just how strong your capital markets have become. The stock market's up five and a half times in the last 20 years," Gray said. "It is probably, after the US, the easiest place to list a company. That is very good for foreign capital because when you think about investing money, and in particular our drawdown funds, we've got to send capital back to our investors."

Given the long-term fundamentals and rising middle class, there are a lot of "interesting places to deploy capital," he said.