Blackstone Group Inc of the US will build out its credit and infrastructure verticals in India to complement its private equity (PE) and real estate businesses, senior executives at the firm said, adding that the firm is expecting to double its India assets under management (AUM) over the next three years.
“We have a global (credit) business of over $450 billion in assets that we hope to bring into India,” Blackstone’s chairman, chief execuitve officer and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman said in a media interaction in Mumbai. To be sure, Blackstone has an overall AUM of more than $1.1 trillion.
“We also think that it is very logical to try and bring (to India) our infrastructure business in the future,” added Schwarzman, an Indophile, who is in India this week to celebrate Blackstone’s 20th anniversary. The PE firm is expected to host more than 300 top firms and business partners in Mumbai in a private event on 13 March to mark the milestone.
Blackstone’s India head and Asia head of private equity Amit Dixit said that the firm’s success in India is likely to help it find more investment opportunities and double its assets under management in India in the near term.
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Dixit said it plans to do so by building its credit and infrastructure verticals, while strengthening the PE and real estate businesses. Currently, the firm’s AUM in India stands anywhere between $50 billion and $55 billion, he said.
Blackstone has seen India turn into its best performing region in terms of investment returns globally over the past 5-10 years. Its private equity and real estate investments registered a record exit year in 2024, Mint reported in December 2024.
The narrative surrounding India exits has also changed for the better, Dixit said.
“(Exit potential) has dramatically changed in multiple ways, whether these are exits by sales to strategics or the IPO (initial public offering) market. In fact, India has become the world’s most vibrant IPO market,” Dixit said, pointing to several companies the firm has taken public including Aadhar Housing Finance and International Gemmological Institute.
On credit, Blackstone expects to launch its India offering by the end of the year and has appointed an India head.
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In infrastructure, the US-based firm has identified three key potential areas of interest around digital infrastructure, energy transition resulting from climate change, and transportation. These are the specific areas that the firm rallies behind within infrastructure globally that are relevant for India, too, Dixit said.
Blackstone’s interest in digital infrastructure includes investments in data centres and telecom towers. Through its real estate investing business, the firm has invested in Lumina, a data centre platform. “The second area is energy transition. As you know, India’s has a 500-GW non-fossil fuel target by 2030. Infrastructure required for that, whether it is renewables or suppliers to renewables, will be huge,” said Dixit.
Schwarzman was also optimistic about India’s economic growth despite the tapering over the past few years from 9.5% to around 6.5%. “The real economy on a long-term basis in India is excellent, and growth rates here have been top of the world,” he said.
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He was even more optimistic about India’s demographic dividend—noting that Indians were among the few countries still “producing children” and is able to replace its population, something that has become a challenge in some countries.
Schwarzman also said he is less pessimistic about India being adversely impacted by the tariff-related negotiations with the US. He expects India to emerge relatively safer through negotiations.
“I think India is quite well placed. Prime Minister Modi had a very good meeting with the President (Donald Trump) and they agreed to do a trade agreement. There are very few countries in the world who have that treatment. India has already made some changes on the higher tariffs and I would anticipate that the negotiations, I’m not conducting them, so I’m just anticipating that they should go relatively well there,” he said.
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