Brookfield emerges as the largest private investor in India by beating Blackstone

Brookfield Asset Management has emerged as the largest private capital investor in India in 2019, trumping US private equity firm Blackstone.

Investments by Brookfield totalled nearly $6.28 billion last year across private equity and real estate, which has outpaced the $2.38 billion in investments by Blackstone, according to deals tracker Venture Intelligence.

However, for the four years through 2018, Blackstone had topped the list with investments of $4.34 billion, more than double Brookfield’s nearly $2.07 billion. The trend changed last year when Brookfield signed deals with billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL. Brookfield made a $3.6 billion buyout of the telecom infrastructure assets of RIL’s subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. It was the largest ever deal in India made by a private equity investor.

Brookfield also invested more than $1.87 billion in RIL’s gas pipeline assets, East West Pipeline Ltd.

Last year’s deals catapulted Brookfield’s total investments in India to $8.3 billion in the five-year period through 2019, ahead of Blackstone’s $6.7 billion, shows data.

Besides the infrastructure deals, Brookfield’s major investments last year included its $563 million entry into the Indian hospitality sector through the acquisition of Hotel Leelaventure Ltd’s hotel properties and operations.

Brookfield also acquired two wind farms from Hyderabad-based renewable energy firm Axis Energy Ventures for about $73 million. It has also paid about $109 million to acquire a prime Mumbai real estate asset from Scotland-based hotelier Sanjay Narang-owned Mars Enterprises and Hospitality Ltd.