Bain Capital has allocated $7 billion for investment in India over the next three to five years, citing the country's stable political environment and economic growth as key factors attracting foreign fund managers. The Boston-based company also intends to expand its team of 25 private equity and special situations investment professionals by 15 to 20 percent within the next two to three years, as stated by Pavninder Singh, a partner and member of the Asian Pacific private equity team. Singh highlighted that this capital infusion represents a significant acceleration compared to the seven or eight years it took to deploy the initial $7 billion in the country.

Global firms from Canadian pensions to sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Singapore are deploying billions of dollars in the world’s most populous nation, lured by the combination of strong economic growth and political stability. In India, Brookfield Asset Management has about $25 billion in assets under management across infrastructure, real estate and private equity, while Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte plans to commit as much as $10 billion there over the next three years.

Bain Capital channels its investments into the country through its private equity and special situations divisions, as well as via the India Resurgence Fund—a collaborative effort between Bain Capital Credit and Piramal Enterprises. Over the past 18 months, the company has invested approximately $2 billion across these three strategies. Pavninder Singh, a partner at Bain Capital, revealed that the private equity business distributed nearly $1.5 billion to investors in the previous year.

Bain has invested capital in the country across a range of sectors including IT services, financial services, pharmaceuticals and industrials. It’s making a concerted effort to grow its consumer retail business, which “plays to the theme of more consumer demand in India,” according to Singh. “There is a lot more interest in India and people would like to see more exposure to India. To do that, you need on-the-ground presence with experience,” something we’ve built over the past 15 years, he said.

Bain also sees tailwinds for manufacturing across sectors from model components to chemicals to pharmaceuticals as investments begin to shift to regions other than China, driven by the Indian government’s push on infrastructure, Singh said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has made a huge push into building infrastructure, with roads, highways and trains, and has pledged to invest about $120 billion in the financial year ending March 2024. Modi is in a strong position to extend his decade in power in upcoming elections.

The company is set to investigate potential investments in India over the next three to five years through various global strategies, such as its global real estate, tech opportunities, and life sciences funds, as stated by Gross. The increased connectivity in transportation has heightened interest in housing in smaller cities. Residential real estate demand experienced a peak in 2022, reaching a nine-year high, and the trend continued in the first half of 2023.