Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world’s largest alternative investment firms, is aiming to more than triple its assets under management in India to $100 billion over the next five years.
Connor Teskey, president of the New York-headquartered global asset manager, said it expects the global AUM to double over the next five years from the present $1 trillion, and the growth in emerging markets like India would be higher.
At present, the AUM in India, where the firm has been investing for over 15 years, is $30 billion in assets across sectors like infrastructure, real estate, renewable power and also private equity.
“It is not unreasonable to suggest that in that same five-year time frame, we would triple or quadruple our business here. I very much expect our Indian platform will be a $100 billion business in the near term,” Teskey said.
Replying to a specific question on when he sees the $100 billion level being attained, Teskey said it will be five years or less.
Teskey hinted that investments in India will not be impacted even if the real GDP growth were to fall to 5.5%, pointing out that that level is also fantastic if we consider the size of the economy.
A higher proportion of the AUM addition will come through merger and acquisition bets, he said, stressing that it will also organically look at building businesses.
India has strengths like a large and growing economy, which is building infrastructure rapidly and a destination for companies working towards creating resilient supply chains, he said, adding that the depth of talent will also help.
Broadly, a bulk of the investments in the country will be in the infrastructure space, which will include investments in both transportation and digital assets, and also in the energy sector where it has been a big player in the renewables space, he said.
Brookfield, which owns the world’s largest nuclear facilities supplier, Westinghouse, is also open to investing in the nuclear energy front, Teskey said, adding that some measures on the liability would be of help.
Returns from its investments in India have either been met or exceeded the targets of the pools of capital, which are deployed to make the bet, he noted.
When it comes to valuations, Teskey said Brookfield will look through temporary trends and also short-term volatilities when it comes to India, stressing that it will be disciplined in its approach given the long-term potential it sees in the market.
At present, its AUM comprises $12 billion of assets each under the infrastructure and real estate strategies, $3 billion in renewable power and transmission and $3.6 billion in private equity and Brookfield special investments.
Teskey said the three Ds of decarbonisation, digitalisation and deglobalisation have been the overarching themes, guiding the asset manager’s investments worldwide, and are relevant for the India play as well.
He said India will be a major beneficiary of the tariff moves being undertaken by the US and Brookfield’s portfolio is largely insulated from the shifts in the trade policies globally.