Apax Partners, a global private equity firm headquartered in London U.K., plans to invest in India faster, Mint reported after an interview with its co-chief executive during a visit to mark two decades of investing in the country.
Mitch Truwit, the firm’s co-chief executive, said India’s technology skills, education levels and talent will keep it in the artificial intelligence race even though it does not build the leading large language models. “What I think India is quite good at is change management, which most companies are not,” he said. He said the challenge for most businesses is to put AI to work in a way that improves efficiency.
A record the firm points to. Apax has invested $4 billion in India so far and returned more than $10 billion to its investors, Truwit said, an annual return of more than 25%. The firm’s past India investments include Fractal Analytics, GlobalLogic and Healthium. Its current portfolio includes iD Fresh, greytHR, Azentio Software and IBS Software.
What comes next. Apax invests from a single pool of capital for the whole world, not a separate Asia fund. It is investing from its eleventh fund, which holds $12 billion, and is targeting a first close on a twelfth fund by March, according to news reports. The report said Apax might put 10% of the new capital into India, which is under 10% of its total investments today. Truwit said the money will go to technology, consumer and healthcare businesses. Harjot Dhaliwal, the firm’s partner and India head, named supply chain management, cybersecurity and digital businesses as attractive areas.
Why this matters. Truwit acknowledged that growth of 7% or 8%, inflation and currency issues make India look riskier to public market investors. “We’re patient capital,” he said, and the firm takes a view of five to seven years. Dhaliwal said Apax builds currency depreciation into its return targets when it prices a deal. For American executives, the message is that a large buyout firm sees India as one of its best markets.
