India 2nd biggest private equity hub for Warburg

Chip Kaye, Chief Executive Founder, Warburg MUMBAI: Warburg Pincus’s global chairman Chip Kaye said India is one of the ‘best constructive ecosystems’ that the PE giant has built over the last 30 years that the US-headquartered private equity major has been in the country. In this period, Warburg Pincus had made 80 investments in India. In terms of scale of investment globally, the country is the second biggest destination behind the US, Kaye said on Wednesday. The firm had partnered companies like HDFC, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank during the formative years of these majors. In addition, it had also invested in companies like Kalyan Jewellers, IDFC First bank, CAMS and a host of other successful corporations. Among most constructive ecosystem Kaye is in India to celebrate the 30th year of its presence here. “We are proud to have been among the first global private equity firms to invest in India at scale,” Kaye said. The PE major entered Asia in 1994. It came to India two years later, just when the economic reforms under the then finance minister Manmohan Singh had started, and private equity was in its infancy. “It has been a privilege to partner with founders whose vision, talent and resilience have helped shape modern India’s economy. Our early investments in financial services, telecom, and consumer sectors laid a strong foundation for our long-term commitment to India and continue to define how we invest,” Kaye said. For the chief, one of the most significant developments in India in recent times was the growth of the domestic capital. “The greatest positive change (in India) has been the confidence in Indian markets coming from India itself,” he said. At a time when foreign capital flows have become volatile, the confident domestic investors are playing a decisive role in stabilising the market and its outcomes, he explained. According to Vishal Mahadevia, MD & head of Asia private equity, Warburg Pincus, India had been central to the PE major’s Asia growth strategy. End of Article