From DealStreet Asia
Jim Coulter, the co-founder and co-chief executive officer of alternative asset manager TPG, is so excited about India that he brought 65 of his investors to the nation to meet policy makers and companies this week.
TPG may write “billion-dollar checks” in India, Coulter said in a phone interview from New Delhi on Wednesday. The private equity firm has been on the sidelines for a long time, waiting for opportunities to invest in non-performing assets in the country, according to TPG Capital’s India head, Puneet Bhatia.
“Our single focus is in India right now,” Coulter said. “We have the dry powder, the inclination and we have the aspiration that this would be the core market for us as this economy grows.”
Buyers including TPG and KKR & Co. are flocking to India, lured by prospects of buying assets at deep discounts in a nation that’s forecast to expand 7.5 percent in the year starting April even as growth slows in China. A surge in problem loans prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to ease rules for private equity firms to invest in stressed assets.
