Growing portfolio: Workers at a construction site of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai High Speed Rail corridor in Ahmedabad. India is home to the Goldman’s biggest overseas office and tops the league table for India deals this year. — Bloomberg
MUMBAI: Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to ramp up its credit business in India and sees an increasing opportunity to target the nation’s wealthy diaspora as global investors shift their focus from China to what is now the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
The investment bank wants to broaden the range of loans it offers through its shadow banking unit, according to Sonjoy Chatterjee, chairman and chief executive officer for Goldman Sachs in India.
The firm also plans to get a license to scale up in currency trading, which would allow Goldman to deal with any counterparty, such as financial investors, equity customers or corporate customers, he said in an interview.
Goldman joins Wall Street lenders and private equity giants chasing opportunities in an economy that is forecast to grow 7% in the year ending March.
India is already home to the New York-based firm’s biggest overseas office, which houses thousands of workers, from quants to software engineers.
Goldman tops the league table for India deals this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Indian markets have benefitted from the emerging market equity flows that have shifted from China, though the China story is not going to go away,” Chatterjee said.
The credit expansion through the firm’s non-banking financial company comes on top of a private credit fund that Goldman already runs on its balance sheet in the South Asian country, he said.
Most non-banking financial institutions, often referred to as shadow banks in India, can make loans but not accept deposits.
“This will be more of what we might want to originate and syndicate, keeping only a residual portion,” he said.
In wealth management, many Indian entrepreneurs moved abroad during the pandemic, which created a “more prominent” opportunity to serve such clients from offices in Singapore, London and Dubai, he said.
Chatterjee, who joined Goldman Sachs as a partner in 2010 after spending 16 years at India’s ICICI Bank, said private equity firms are looking to deploy a substantial proportion of the capital they’ve raised for Asia funds in India.
That, in turn, is likely to fuel dealmaking in the country in the future.
“Private capital continues to remain very hungry to invest,” he said.
“When you have a large Asia fund of US$8 to US$10bil, India is the most obvious destination.” — Bloomberg
