Canada Pension Will Open Mumbai Office, Invest $6 Billion in India Over Next 6 Years

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is looking to increase its exposure to emerging markets, and India figures to play a big role.

The Board announced this week that it plans to invest $6 billion in India by 2022; the fund will also open an office in Mumbai.

More from the Financial Times:

Mark Wiseman, chief executive, said that the increase would see India become the group’s second most important growth market after China, as the Toronto-based fund seeks new assets in areas from infrastructure and healthcare to India’s booming e-commerce sector.

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CPPIB plans to raise its India investments from 1 per cent of global assets to about 2 per cent over the next seven to eight years, Mr Wiseman said. Given the fund itself was likely to double in size over that period, the fund’s investment would rise from $2bn today to about $8bn.

“We want to put increasing amounts of our portfolio into growth markets,” he said. “At the moment our total emerging markets exposure is 7 to 8 per cent, and we could easily see that going to 15 [per cent] over the same period.”

“[India] is going to be increasingly important. You just have to look at the numbers and look at the growth rate….. Probably after China, India is the next most important [emerging market],” he added.

On Tuesday, CPPIB announced it planned to set up an office in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, to help scout for potential deals in assets such as operational toll roads and completed commercial property projects, in anticipation of an increase in Indian infrastructure investment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But Mr Wiseman said he also planned to increase private equity investments, including potential deals with in the technology sector, where rapidly-expanding online retailers including Flipkart and Snapdeal have helped to attract record venture capital investments into India over the past year.

CPPIB manages $269 billion (CAD) in assets.

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