Looking forward to investing ‘even more’ in India, says US pvt investment firm leadership after meeting Sitharaman

Boston, October 12

American private investment firm Bain Capital, with investments of about USD 5 billion in Indian companies, is looking forward to investing “even more” in the country and the next decade will be very important for both India and the US to work together to build businesses on a global basis, top executives of the company said.

Bain Capital Co-Chairman Stephen Pagliuca and Co-Managing Partner John Connaughton met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Monday, with Pagliuca describing the meeting as “fantastic”, during which they talked about the Financial Services District in Gujarat.

Sitharaman arrived in the US on Monday for a week-long trip to attend the annual meet of the World Bank and IMF in Washington as well as G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting.

During the official visit to the US, Sitharaman is expected to meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Connaughton said that “whenever you see the kinds of reforms that we’re seeing in India, and we’ve been there for almost over a dozen years, it really allows us to accelerate our investment activity, particularly across the broader sectors that we participate in”, such as banking, outsourcing and pharmaceuticals.

Connaughton said the ability to reform all those industries that the government is now reforming “allows us to participate in a broader way” and “we’re looking forward to investing even more. We’ve invested USD 5 billion already and we see it accelerating.”

Pagliuca said the markets could be made more business-friendly and “I think that’s happening in India right now. It’ll make it a great attractive climate for foreign direct investment.”

Pagliuca added that Bain Capital has invested over USD 5 billion in a dozen companies and “had great success in India. And I think the next decade will be very important for both countries to work together to build businesses on a global basis and really increase the GDP of both countries”.

The Finance Ministry in a tweet said that Connaughton appreciated the friendly business atmosphere in India and mentioned that he is upbeat about investment in India. Sitharaman spoke about exploring opportunities in Gift City in Gujarat and other opportunities in infrastructure in India. PTI