Blackstone sees India and Japan as its most active markets in Asia next year based on capital allocation, while Thailand’s biggest banks and South Korea’s KB are competing for Home Credit’s Vietnam business.
Blackstone bullish on India’s high growth, robust stock markets
Blackstone sees India and Japan as its most active markets in Asia next year based on capital allocation, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday quoting the New York-based alternative asset manager’s global head of private equity Joe Baratta.
Baratta attributed his bullishness on India to the country having the “highest growth” and the “most ebullient stock market”.
“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,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Blackstone has been active in India lately. In October it bought a majority stake in India’s Care Hospitals from a fund belonging to asset management firm TPG.
Also in October, the Blackstone-owned hospital platform Quality Care signed an agreement to acquire Kerala-based KIMS Health Management, Kerala’s leading hospital chain, reportedly valuing the business at $400 million.
However, the firm has been quiet in Japan. According to Bloomberg, its only portfolio companies in the country are Ayumi Pharmaceutical and Alinamin Pharmaceutical, which were acquired in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Baratta told Bloomberg that the firm has deals in the pipeline in the consumer as well as industrial sectors and that the firm is open to more deals in sectors such as IT and healthcare, which are in the range of $300 million to more than $2 billion. Blackstone, which has over $1 trillion in assets under management, raised $11 billion early last year for an Asia-focused buyout fund.
KBank, SCB X said to be among final bidders for Home Credit Vietnam
The two largest banks in Thailand, Kasikornbank and SCB X, are among the final bidders to buy consumer lender Home Credit’s Vietnam business in a deal the could value the assets at around $700 million, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources close to the matter.
KB Kookmin Bank, a subsidiary of South Korea’s KB Financial Group, also supposedly made it to the next round.
According to the report, Home Credit is selling its Vietnam business as part of a plan to simplify its operations and refocus on its parent company’s base, Europe. It sold its units in Indonesia and the Philippines earlier this year.
The parent company, Netherland’s-headquartered PPF Group, is controlled by the family of late Czech billionaire Petr Kellner.
Home Credit, founded in 1997, operates across Asia, central and eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union.