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while mr. wish welcome very much to the
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one in the economic forum thank you nice
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to be here thank you very much a
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pleasure to host you here and so we'd
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love to you know ask you a few questions
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about your own background and the kinds
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of things you've been doing sure why
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don't we start with you telling us why
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you started focusing on India well I was
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at Goldman Sachs for many years most of
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my career at Goldman Sachs 1994 I moved
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to Asia X Japan and I covered the whole
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region India China and everything in
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between India in those days was a very
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tough place to do business in yeah in
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fact I would say it's probably the
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toughest country in the entire region
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that being said one thing I noted was
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the entrepreneurs there were the best I
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felt in all of Asia so I was impressed
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by that and in the back of my mind I
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said India would be a great place to
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invest at some point I wasn't sure if it
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was gonna be in my lifetime but I knew
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it had potential after I left goldman
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sachs i did some work in the
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not-for-profit sector a colleague of
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mine suggest that I go back to India in
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early about 2002 2003 I went back and I
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saw some very significant changes taking
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place and I reached the conclusion that
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India would have an enormous opportunity
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not just for the next couple of years
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but really the next decades and century
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and I think India has been a sleeping
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giant not just for decades but I think
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for centuries with slow or a little
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growth and I think that was unleashed in
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the early 90s and really came to for
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after 2000 and and I saw that had I not
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spent so much time in Indian the 90s I
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wouldn't have noticed it coming back in
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fact I would have probably gotten off
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the plane and said let me get back on
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and go back to New York right but I
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think India's got great promise great
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challenges but I recognise that and I
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wanted to invest and hence that's how I
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got involved in India and so then you
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started into equity partners yeah I
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actually began with I Rio which is a
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real estate business and saw a
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tremendous opportunity in real estate no
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foreigners were doing real estate in
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India it was mostly there was no
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institutional capital mostly family-run
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businesses but I went met with a lot of
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developers and the returns that they
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were getting were just tremendous
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and I met my partner Anurag bhargava who
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was trying to raise about twenty five
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million dollars to do real estate in
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India and I spent about six months with
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him and and his team and after six
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months I agreed to invest with him he
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asked me if I would be an advisor and
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part owner and help him raise the first
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fund a billion six dollars of equity
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later were full partners and we now have
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about fourteen projects in India were a
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fully integrated development and
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operating company I also then a few
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years after that started IEP India
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Equity Partners which is our private
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equity if I can just ask you to stay on
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the eye areaa pod sure a second and we
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come to integrity partners in a bit so
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real estate in India is not an easy
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industry to be in correct me there's
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private equity but I would say that real
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estate is probably even harder to be in
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sure especially as someone who's not
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from India can you tell us about your
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experiences in the real estate industry
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what challenges you see in sure well
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first of all we're very vocal I think we
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bring the best of the west and India
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we've got about 450 to 500 people in
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eight offices but we're very local but
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we also bring those sense of fiduciary
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Western fiduciary responsibilities and
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an ethics so I think we're unique so but
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we have to have people on the ground and
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what we decided to do initially we did
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not want to allocate our capital to
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local developers we can get the women
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mercy of local developers who frankly I
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don't think oftentimes are easy to trust
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so we wanted to be in control of our own
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processes and really from the beginning
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as I said a grenading land getting the
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approvals doing the design planning
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construction marketing and selling so it
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has been challenging I think the biggest
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challenge is the time it takes to get
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things done in India it's frustrating
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but there's a tremendous current at our
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back and there's a tremendous movement
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of people into cities
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and and and wealth the rise of a middle
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class everyone wants to own real estate
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so we're very focused on residential to
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some extent hospitality and commercial
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as well but I see great promise and it's
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going to take longer than expected but
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with patience should do very well so to
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draw up on the point you just made
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you're trying to combine you know
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obviously local expertise with as you
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said Western fiduciary responsibilities
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as we think about India from a
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management perspective obviously there
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are a lot of local challenges and there
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lots lots of things that India and
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managers in you can learn from
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management practices outside so you
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started touch upon that will have to get
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you a perspective on how you have
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managed to do that was there some
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resistance from local managers when you
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try to introduce some of these you know
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quote-unquote
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Western practices right I understand
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they were probably familiar but I would
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love to understand the dynamic there
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well I think that there always are
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challenges I think one of the big issues
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I see with India most promoters
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entrepreneurs that think that execution
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is easy and don't worry it will get done
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but it's got more challenges than you
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think
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and I think putting systems in place and
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processes and procedures is something
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that is not typical most people in India
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like to do things by the seat of their
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pants yeah but becoming professional and
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and develop and and by the way real
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estate is a challenging business
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anywhere in the world including in the
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United States and many real estate
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companies are not well or professionally
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managed even in the United States or in
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the West so I think that the bar is very
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low in India but I think our standards
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not just of how we operate but also the
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projects the quality of what we do is is
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quite high and I think the market is
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recognizing that sure so switching to
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India Equity Partners sure why don't you
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tell us a little bit more about what
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your focus is how your experience has
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been in the private equity industry sure
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and what lessons you've brought in from
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you know the bee industry in the u.s. we
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are quite unique in private equity in
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that we focus exclusively on significant
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minority and majority stakes and
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businesses most of Indian private equity
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it's a growth equity market but most of
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minority stakes and a lot of pipes right
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we did some of those early on
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and we came to the conclusion very early
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very early that if you want to invest in
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small minority stakes or pipes you might
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as well just invest the public markets
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we think that the real value is finding
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the promoters who not just want your
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money but also want us for the value
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that we bring and we have a very
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value-added team where we help companies
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with the processes and procedures
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internally with strategy with
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acquisitions with new customers of
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financing and one thing that's another
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unique thing about us is we have a group
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of venture not venture but platform CEOs
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is what we call them and these are
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former CEOs of successful businesses in
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India we bring them on board full-time
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to help us find new acquisitions and we
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work with them to find the acquisitions
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and then manage them so we will do
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majority stakes and when we do minority
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stakes there's significant minority
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stakes where we have a board seat and
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we're very much involved in the
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management of the business right and so
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as you've you know dealt with the
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private equity industry in India a lot
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of business owners and on the real
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estate side can you share your
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perspective on what you see as some of
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the unique management practices or
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unique lessons that the rest of the
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world can learn from the way Indian
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managers run their businesses well I
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think that one of the things that I was
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struck by in in the 90s and what brought
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me to India and continues to be the main
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reason as I think the entrepreneurial
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talent anybody is extraordinary I think
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that you'll see some of the absolute
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best managers in the world very focused
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on cost and India was starved of capital
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for decades and I think managers got
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away got by with very little capital so
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I think the focus on costs and is is
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very important and I think that managers
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are very hardworking on the other hand I
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think that many of the managers haven't
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branched out and brought a big team in
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with breadth and depth of management
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talent and many companies are very
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hierarchical the promoter walks in
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everyone stands up I think that's
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changing will change slowly but I think
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that Indian companies have a lot to
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offer the world and what is also
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striking is Indian
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company is not just successful in India
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but unlike China you see many companies
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that have expanded globalizing abroad
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yeah and do you see that trend
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continuing and them seeing sort of
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bringing that same cost focus to their
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operations abroad as well or do you see
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them adapting more to the kinds of
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circumstances they might face in
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different countries well I think that
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you'll get the best of both I think that
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there's a lot that could be brought into
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India as I said management and processes
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and procedures are very important but
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the entrepreneurial spirit that that
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work ethic that India brings I think
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will help these companies globally as
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well and we see that already in the
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technology sector and in many aspects of
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global companies already with Indian
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Talent so I think that the best of those
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two cultures if you will will come
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together in Indian companies will have a
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real influence on the world going
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forward yeah well great
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Steve it's been a pleasure having you
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thank you again for taking the time
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thank you for having me pleasure
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you
