- InduQin
Billionaire banker says now’s the best time to invest in India
Overseas investors should look to invest in Indian digital to consumer sector companies now as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic makes valuations of businesses attractive, Asia’s richest banker said.
“I have always believed you have to invest in India when things look more challenging,” Uday Kotak, the managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. said in a conversation with David Rubenstein, the co-founder of Carlye Group Inc. at the Bloomberg India Economic Summit Thursday. “That’s the best time to put your money to work.”
With half a billion Internet users and growing, overseas investors had been pouring money into Indian companies in sectors from e-commerce to digital payments – similar to the early days of China’s digital boom. The sector’s importance has only increased this year as the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the South Asian nation to impose the world’s biggest lockdown in late March.
Mukesh Ambani, who’s Asia’s richest man, raised more than $20 billion this year, selling 33% of his technology venture Jio Platforms Ltd. to investors including Facebook Inc. and Google. His Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. has embarked on its own fund raising spree, mopping up $5.1 billion from private equity and sovereign wealth funds in the past two months.