For all the noise around India’s stock market boom, the real story this year may be how the country’s richest investors — wary of stretched valuations — are quietly reshaping their portfolios.
As traditional equities take a breather, high-net-worth investors (HNIs) are looking beyond listed stocks toward private credit, infrastructure, and data-linked opportunities. The conversation on The Wealth Formula’s Diwali Blockbuster roundtable on Private Wealth revealed how smart money is repositioning — and how “smart” it really is.
“Smart money is really moving into new sectors: private credit, data centers, blockchain, defense,” said Rajesh Saluja, Co-founder, CEO and MD of ASK Private Wealth. “These are becoming preferred destinations for capital that’s under-allocated in secondary markets.”
This isn’t a flight from equities, he clarified, but a rebalancing. “Traditional equities will remain the core, but investors are looking for themes that compound faster or behave differently. Private credit offers that balance — it’s complementary, not competitive.”
Private credit takes the lead
Private credit has become the flavor of the season for India’s ultra-rich, promising double-digit yields.
“Secondary equity can give you 15–18%,” said Saluja, “but private and alternate credit can deliver 13–15%.”
Ashish Gumastha, Gumastha Partners agreed to the same, but with caveats. “Credit funds are back, but this time with a more conservative lens. The smarter ones are staying with A-plus or BBB-plus paper. The chase for high yield is over; it’s now about risk-adjusted returns.”
Yatin Shah, Co-founder of 360 ONE and CEO of 360 ONE Wealth, added that alternate fixed income — REITs, INVITs, private credit — is now a fair portion of UHNI portfolios. “The financialization of real assets has opened new ways to capture yield without owning the underlying risk,” he said.
Real estate: cautious optimism
And yet, one traditional favourite — real estate — continues to split opinion.
“We’ve clearly witnessed an upcycle post-Covid,” said Saluja. “Luxury housing continues to boom, and commercial real estate looks positive.”
Umang Papneja, CEO of Julius Baer India, pointed out that the real action is at the development end. “If you want IRRs, you need to be in the developer’s seat. Funds with equity participation can deliver 20% plus.”
But Feroz Azeez, Deputy CEO at Anand Rathi Wealth, was blunt: the tax arbitrage that kept money recycling through property is gone.
“With Sections 54 and 54F capped at Rs 10 crore, the generational cycle of rolling capital gains into real estate is over,” he said. “And when you try to put structure into an unstructured asset, it doesn’t work. My REIT IRRs were 4% when apartments quadrupled.”
Others agreed that REITs and INVITs can succeed only if issuers stay transparent.
The global pivot — and GIFT’s quiet rise
Another structural shift is playing out offshore. Wealth managers are seeing strong traction in global diversification — and this time, GIFT City is part of the story.
“We’re seeing genuine pull for global allocations,” said Papneja. “Through GIFT, families can now route up to 50% of net worth offshore via India. We’ve already seen close to half a billion dollars go through this channel. It’s still early, but comfort is rising.”
Yatin Shah added, “Emerging markets, China, Europe — they all look exciting after years of under-performance. The new UHNI portfolio always has two buckets now — a domestic core and an international satellite.”
Behavior: the great leveller
For all this sophistication, Azeez offered a reality check. “HNIs are not always smarter than retail,” he said. “They sell in panic, chase fads, and think complexity equals sophistication.”
A deeper shift, though, is in attitude. Ashish Gumaste summed it up neatly: “The ability of Indian promoters to take risk has gone up dramatically — this is like the US in the 1980s. It’s a structural shift in mindset.”
That generational confidence is feeding into portfolio design. Where older investors sought safety, the next generation wants exposure — but with diligence. As Saluja put it, “The focus is on strategic deployment, not short-term returns. Investors are learning to balance ambition with structure.”
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