Blackstone expects India and Japan to be its most active markets in Asia next year based on capital allocation, according to the firm’s head of private equity.
"India has the highest growth; it also has the most ebullient stock market,” Joe Baratta, Blackstone’s global head of private equity, said in an interview in Tokyo. "Japan will also be very interesting as a market. The economy seems to be decoupled from what’s going on in the rest of the world.”
The world’s largest alternative asset manager has been active in India, where it recently acquired a stake in two hospital chains. But it’s been relatively quiet when it comes to private equity deals in Japan in the past two years, despite broader foreign investor interest in the island nation.