Blackstone COO picks India as top investment destination: ‘Massive infra push, rising middle class’

John Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone, has identified India as one of the most attractive investment destinations globally, describing it as the “fastest growing country in the G10”. Speaking in a recent speech, Gray said India’s strong economic fundamentals, expanding middle class and infrastructure drive it to make it a compelling long-term bet for global investors.

During his speech, he listed what he considers to be some of the best places to invest. “My first stop is commercial real estate. It’s been a very difficult three-and-a-half years for commercial real estate, but now this good dynamic has taken over, which is new supply is down about 70%, in this case in US logistics, but it’s already happening all over the world. The cost of capital is coming down, assets are being repriced, and that’s when you want to be an investor in commercial real estate,” Gray said.

He identified three key areas – real estate, secondary markets and India – as the strongest potential areas. “Then, secondaries. Another industry that has grown a lot, from $23 billion to $200 billion over the last 15 years. And again, the concern is, has this gotten too big? But I would point out that only 1.5 percent of assets under management that are trading hands. And that’s compared to 100% of the stock market by value that is trading hands. That’s why we think discounts and secondaries will continue to Continue.”

Turning to India, Gray said: “Third stop, India. This is the G10, which is clearly the fastest growing country. There have been some geopolitical tensions recently, but this is a country that is investing heavily in physical infrastructure, legal capital markets infrastructure. There is a rising middle class here. This is a place we particularly like.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week revised India’s GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 6.6%, up from its previous estimate of 6.4%, citing “strong growth offsetting the impact of US tariffs on Indian shipments.” In its latest forecast for the global economy, the International Monetary Fund pegged growth next year at 6.2%.

At a recent regional conference, Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF’s Asia-Pacific Department, said India’s fundamentals remain strong, but stressed the need for deeper reforms. “There are many things working for India,” Srinivasan said. “But to achieve the Vixit Bharat government’s goal of becoming a developed economy, India must unleash all its energy to reach growth of 8% or more.”

“India needs to focus on pre-liberalization reforms if it wants to position itself more competitively with China,” he added, calling for “diversification of export markets to reduce external vulnerabilities.”