♦ We will invest US$ 40 bn in India
♦ It’s best market for investment
Blackstone Chairman Schwarzman

Washington/New Delhi, Sep 24 (FN Bureau) Betting big on India, the global investment giant Blackstone plans to invest US$ 40 billion in India over the next five years. Following a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is on a high-level visit to the US, Blackstone Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder Stephen Schwarzman said that the company had already invested US$ 60 billion in India across various assets. “I had a very good meeting with the Prime Minister. I told him that Blackstone had already invested 60 billion US dollars in assets in India and within next five years we are planning another 40 billion dollars of assets,” Schwarzman said after the meeting. PM Modi on Thursday met CEOs of top American companies such as Qualcomm, Adobe, First Solar, General Atomics and Blackstone as per his pre-determined schedule.

During the interactions, Modi highlighted economic opportunities India offers and mentioned the reforms undertaken by the government. He invited the companies to invest in India. Blackstone top boss Schwarzman gave thumbs-up to the government’s asset monetisation plan and said that the move would help build new infrastructure and create jobs. He noted that some countries like Australia had done so to build more and better infrastructure. On Blackstone’s experience so far in India, Schwarzman said that India has been Blackstone’s best market for investment in the world. “I know that sounds sort of remarkable but it is. We have a terrific team there, both corporate investments and real estate investments. The country is fastest growing country now in the world. We are very optimistic,” he said. Schwarzman noted that Modi government is very friendly government for outsiders. “They (government) are very smart, they are very reform oriented, their objective is what can be done, how quickly it can be done, how sensible is it. Is it benefitting India and benefit outsiders. So I will give them an extremely high grade as being good partners for people who would like to bring capital into the country to create jobs,” said Blackstone Chairman post meeting with PM Modi.