” $50 billion. It’s a big number,” said Jean Eric Salata, chairman of EQT Group, according to The Economic Times. “It’s a much bigger number than what I would have told you 24 months ago because of the significant capital intensity of the data center and energy businesses.” Salata made the comment a day after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in New Delhi, in northern India, according to the report.
Most of the money will fund data centers and infrastructure such as renewable power, according to Livemint. EQT has already committed $10 billion through its data-center platform, EdgeConneX, which it acquired in 2020, and expects to commit another $20 billion by 2030. The company will also deploy $10 billion to $15 billion through its private equity and other strategies, including renewables, energy storage and infrastructure, Salata said.
EdgeConneX runs a joint venture with India’s Adani Group that is building green data centers with a target of one to three gigawatts of capacity, with an aspiration to reach five gigawatts, according to The Economic Times. The joint venture is building sites in Chennai and Hyderabad, both in southern India; Navi Mumbai, in western India; Noida, in northern India; and Visakhapatnam, in southeastern India.
EQT is also broadening its India strategy beyond large buyouts. Nicholas Macksey, a partner and co-head of private capital for Asia at EQT, said the firm is adding mid-market investments in technology services and pharmaceuticals and healthcare, typically taking a controlling stake as the company’s first institutional investor, according to Livemint. EQT has already backed Niwas Housing Finance and Indium Software through this strategy. The firm is also expanding an early-stage venture strategy, which began in Europe, into India alongside China and Hong Kong.
India now accounts for 5% of EQT’s global infrastructure portfolio and 25% of its overall Asia portfolio, the firm said. In April, EQT closed a $15.6 billion fund that it described as the largest private equity fund raised in the Asia-Pacific region, with India and Japan each expected to draw 20% of its money, according to Livemint. Hari Gopalakrishnan, a partner and co-head of private capital for Asia who also serves as EQT’s head of India, said the firm evaluated $90 billion in India transactions over the past two years and returned $40 billion to its investors globally last year.
EQT opened its Mumbai office in 2006 and marks the twentieth anniversary this year. Its India portfolio includes GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, Indira IVF, Credila, Resolven, WSO2, Sagility, Hexaware and Coforge.
Why it matters: EQT’s plan is one of the largest India commitments announced by a foreign investor this year, and it comes from a firm doubling its historical pace of investment rather than entering the market for the first time. For US and European executives, the scale of the bet, spread across data centers, buyouts, mid-market deals and early-stage ventures, is a signal of how central India has become to global private equity strategy.
