A public endorsement of India from one of the world’s largest private equity firms is a sentiment signal for foreign capital, though it is one investor’s view and not a flow or valuation data point. The tilt toward control stakes in IT services, commercial real estate and domestic manufacturing points to where foreign private equity money may keep going. Gray’s own caveats are the more market-relevant items: US-India tariff disagreements and higher energy costs from the Iran war, which India feels as a large energy importer. Rupee and Indian equity traders will look for whether such positive investor commentary is backed by actual capital deployment.
—
The Economic Times with the info.
—
Blackstone once struggled to make India work, but a switch to control stakes has made it the firm’s best private equity market, and Jon Gray says a growth tipping point is nearing.
Summary:
- Blackstone President Jon Gray said India has delivered the firm’s highest private equity returns worldwide, two decades after its India push began.
- The early effort struggled, with a small team and no clear strategy, and it stalled during the global financial crisis because the firm could not make the numbers work.
- The firm then moved to majority or equal-control stakes and focused on information technology services, commercial real estate and domestic manufacturing.
- Gray said it takes time for a country to reach the point where its growth rate can expand, and that India is getting closer to that tipping point.
- The report cites India’s GDP at around $3.7 trillion, up almost fivefold since 2005, growth of 7.6% in fiscal 2026 per the World Bank, and a population of 1.47 billion.
- Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai pointed to India’s talent pool, while Gray warned of US-India tariff disagreements and higher energy costs from the Iran war.
Blackstone’s President, Jon Gray, says India has become the private equity firm’s best-performing market worldwide, a turnaround from an early effort that struggled to gain traction. The Economic Times reported his remarks from an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week, in which he described the country as nearing a tipping point for faster growth.
Gray said Blackstone’s early India push had a small team and no well-defined strategy, and that it stalled during the global financial crisis because the firm could not make the numbers work. That setback forced a rethink. The firm changed its approach to take majority or equal-control stakes in companies, and it concentrated on information technology services, commercial real estate and domestic manufacturing. Two decades after it began, India has delivered Blackstone’s highest private equity returns of any market, according to Gray.
Looking ahead, Gray said it takes time for an economy to reach the stage where its growth rate can begin to expand, and that India is getting closer to that point. The report cites India’s gross domestic product at around $3.7 trillion, almost five times its level in 2005, and says the country has moved from 14th to fourth in the global economy, ahead of Germany, the UK and France. It also cites a population of 1.47 billion, the world’s largest since India overtook China in 2023, and growth of 7.6% in fiscal 2026, according to the World Bank.
On the supply of skilled workers, Mohandas Pai, a former chief financial officer of Infosys, said around 11 million people graduate from Indian colleges each year, including roughly 800,000 to 1 million engineers or near-engineers, of whom he estimated about 500,000 are strong enough to be trained for the technology industry. He said the US and India could combine their strengths, with India supplying talent and the US supplying financial capital, markets and marketing.
Gray was clear that the opportunity comes with risks. He pointed to disagreements between the US and India over tariffs and to higher energy costs caused by the US war with Iran, adding that there will be bumps along the way.
The remarks show how a major foreign investor now describes India, and the shift to control deals gives the return claim a specific explanation. The return figures themselves are Gray’s own and were not detailed in the report. What investors will watch is whether the tariff dispute and energy costs he flagged narrow the growth path he describes, and whether firms like Blackstone commit more capital to it.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.