Private equity firm KKR will continue to invest strategic capital in Indian companies, is the word coming in from CEO Sanjay Nayar. He is bullish on India in the long term. Reiterating his point, he adds: “We are making investments as we speak.”
He believes it will take another one and a half years for investment appetite to pick up. According to him, domestic investors are looking for clarity in policy reforms and foreign money will follow once domestic economy picks up.
Nayar hopes to see some reforms to tap into higher growth potential.
Below is the verbatim transcript of Sanjay Nayar's interview with Kritika Saxena on CNBC-TV18.
Q: Do you see foreign money flowing in?
A: There is definitely a lot of hype of what people make of it but what the government is doing is a pretty deliberate and a very well calibrated action plan. Going about attacking governance first and then hopefully we will see some reforms which should help us come back to a much higher potential growth. I don’t think the outcome ultimately is let us just reduce rates and get on with it; I don’t think that is the answer. The Indian businessman has to feel comfortable that I want to put money to work in the ground again. I think if that happens foreign money will follow.
Q: Is there a timeline that you have in mind?
A: I think it will take at least 1.5 years before you see that kind of an uptick and you feel comfortable that the investment spending, investment climate, certainty of capital productivity is back. There is one more big joker out there which is capital markets. The capital markets are what they are, they maybe very active and going up but the depth is not there; it is lacking depth.
Q: As a foreign investor yourself has the way you see India as an investment domain has that changed from KKRs point of view?
A: We are making investments as we speak. We made two of the largest private equity investments in the last 14 months between two deals that were announced; attire company and a pharmaceutical company. We are bullish long-term, I think we can bring in the strategic capital and the operational efficiency which can help Indian corporates become global, bigger and better; that is good enough.
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