About the AMC
- Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies in which we invest, and the communities in which we live and work.
- Blackstone has been active in India since 2006 by making investments through PE and real estate.
- Private Equity AUM $90B
- Available capital to invest $41B
- Portfolio companies- 97
Key staff
- Mukesh Mehta, Managing Director PE India- Mukesh Mehta is a Managing Director in the Private Equity Group and is based in Mumbai. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Mehta worked as a Vice President with The Carlyle Group in their Private Equity division. He was involved in several transactions, including investments in HDFC, IIFL and PNBHF, during his 10 year stint at Carlyle. Prior to Carlyle he worked in the Investment Banking Division at Citigroup and the Assurance & Business Advisory Group at PwC. Mr. Mehta is a Chartered Accountant, with a Master’s Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University. He has also completed CFA (AIMR-USA).
- Amit Jain, Sr. Managing Director PE India- Amit Jain is a Senior Managing Director in the Private Equity Group and is based in Mumbai. Before joining Blackstone in 2010, Mr. Jain worked at McKinsey & Company focusing on infrastructure and financial projects in India. Prior to that, Mr. Jain worked at Hindustan Unilever limited (“HUL”) where he worked primarily in the manufacturing and supply chain area, setting up and operating manufacturing plants in HUL. Mr. Jain received a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur where he received the “Institute Silver Medal” and a P.G.P. (equivalent to an M.B.A.) from the Indian School of Business (“ISB”), Hyderabad where he was awarded the “ISB Scholar of Excellence.”
Investment Philosophy (for firm)
We invest across industries in both established and growth-oriented businesses across the globe.
- Disciplined Due Diligence
Our investment approach is based on a disciplined due diligence process that measures risk while identifying the catalysts for increased value. We engage only in friendly transactions and work with talented management teams to achieve positive results
- Transformative Impact
We strive to create value by investing in great businesses where our capital, strategic insight, global relationships and operational support can drive transformation.
Media
Title: How Blackstone turned India into its most profitable market, Source: ET article, Date: 12th March 2018
Over the past few years, Blackstone has started concentrating on select sectors like consumer and information technology where it expects India to see the most wealth creation, according to Senior Managing Director Amit Dixit.
Blackstone recorded an annualized internal rate of return of about 30 percent on its India private equity investments since 2011, the highest among its markets worldwide.
Blackstone, which earlier bought minority stakes in India, has decided it won’t be a passive investor, according to Dixit. Its strategy since 2011 has been to acquire majority stakes in Indian companies only in certain areas where it has “deep knowledge” like finance, health care and industrials.
Title: Joe Baratta, Global Head of Blackstone’s Private Equity Group, Blackstone, Source: Youtube, Date: 9th Apr 2013
60 second video on Blackstones PE business.
Title: Blackstone keen to invest in India’s stressed assets, says Schwarzman, Source: The Hindu article, Date: 5th March 2020
Blackstone, one of world’s largest private equity (PE) majors, is bullish to invest in India inspite of the economic slowdown in the country.
Hinting at buying stressed assets, Mr. Schwarzman said, “Issues with India are more about slowing economic growth and limited credit extension by the banking system and neo banks, and that should create more need for owners of companies to look for other sources of liquidity. For us, if there is something very attractive here… we’ve a lot of long term confidence in India. So, we will be very active buyers or lenders in this market.”
Title: Blackstone’s Private Equity Head Says Some U.S. Assets Are Overpriced, Asset Prices Bloomberg market and finance, Source: Youtube, Date: 28th Feb 2019
Impact of geopolitical news: There is always a lot of noise out there and our job is to think long term, buy a good business and hold it through the cycle, can we do something to improve the business and we tend not to focus on these short term noise.
Concern of LPs: People are really focused on where we are in the economy, how close we are to the recession and our views on valuations.
What do you think about recession?
There is certainly deceleration in some of our company’s top line but we are not seeing signs of a recession in the near term.
Valuations in US: Valuations are elevated particularly for higher growth businesses so we have to be selective.
Title: India is our best PE market: Balckstone’s Gray, Source: TOI article, Date: 22nd Feb 2019
The world’s largest alternative asset manager Blackstone has deployed more than $10 billion — equally split between private equity and real estate investments.
Gray(COO)— who joined the investment firm as a fresher from the University of Pennsylvania 26 years ago, and with a personal net worth of about $3 billion now- is seen as one of the most influential alternative asset investors.He scripted the most profitable private equity deal in acquiring and selling Hilton Hotels Worldwide, which alone netted the firm $14 billion.
Analyst questions
- Being a global PE firm and investing in several markets, how is India different from other markets (in terms of investment)?
- Can you talk about the regulatory challenges that the PE industry faces globally as well as India specifically?
- Your investment philosophy has two key points- disciplined due diligence and transformative impact, can you elaborate on that?
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