Joseph Bae, who joined KKR as an analyst in 1996 and rose to become the Co-CEO of the private equity giant is betting on healthcare, consumer, and tech and tech-enabled segments as the top three sectors of focus for India investments going ahead.
The US-headquartered investment major has pumped in more than $10 bn across asset classes and strategies in India since 2006 and has $504 bn of assets under management as of Dec 31, 2022.
Amid a challenging global macro-economic environment, Bae believes " India is in a different spot " and the senior executive who started KKR's Asia operations in 2005 is bullish on the "opportunity set."
On being asked about the impact of the global tech meltdown and the so-called funding winter on the firm's India strategy, Bae indicated there are opportunities with the lesser competition today in the tech space with a pullback of capital.
" The correction in the tech market is more pronounced outside India than in India. There is a bigger bubble in the US. We are trying to back the leading players who will dominate their sectors in the years to come," Bae told Moneycontrol.
In India, the private equity major counts Lenskart and Livspace as part of its tech and startup-related portfolio.
India Partner and CEO Gaurav Trehan said " This is the best time to lean in ( in some of these sectors).
Interestingly, he added that going ahead when it came to the real estate sector, KKR India would be more equity-focused than credit focused.
Lauding the Indian government's ongoing privatization programme, Trehan said, " Air India has opened the doors for other interesting assets in the privatization pipeline."
In 2022, KKR made an exit from Max Healthcare in what was the largest-ever single-block private equity sale in India. Speaking on the road ahead in the segment, Trehan said, "40 percent of our current pipeline would be in pharma/healthcare."
Both Bae and Trehan were speaking during a select media interaction in Mumbai.
Regarding the firm's majority stake in Avendus Capital (an investment made in 2015), Trehan clarified that no sale process for an exit had been launched as yet. "The idea has always been to build the business, get it to the right scale and when we feel it's the right time to exit, we will take a strategic call on that. Currently, we are focused on building the business and it's performing quite well."
Hero Future Energies, Shriram General Insurance, Vini Cosmetics, Five Star Business Finance, and JB Chemicals are some of the other firms part of the KKR India portfolio.
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