Hari Gopalakrishnan, Deputy Co-Head of Private Capital Asia, Head of India and Global Co-Head of Services at EQT, said that while EQT does not earmark capital country-wise, India emerged as the single largest allocation in both Fund VII and Fund VIII. “If I look at our previous two funds, India has been the biggest allocation per fund, and I would expect that India will do well in this fund as well,” said in his interaction with ET.
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Historically, roughly a third of EQT’s Asia fund capital has been deployed in India, which he described as a “fair estimate” for Funds VII and VIII.
He also highlighted that the $15.6 billion represents only the core fund size and excludes co-investments, which significantly expand the investable pool. For Fund VIII, EQT generated about $1.6 of co-investment capital for every dollar invested from the fund, effectively increasing the overall equity available for deals.
In 2022, EQT AB had acquired Barings Private Equity Asia (BPEA) in a $7.5-billion cash-and-stock deal. In 2024, it raised $1.6 billion BPEA EQT Mid-Market Growth Partnership (MMG Fund), for mid-market investments across Asia.
According to him, EQT continues to see strong buyout opportunities in India and remains open to transactions across both public and private markets.In 2023, EQT made multiple large buyouts in India such as Credila, the educational loan arm of HDFC, and Indira IVF. EQT, along with ChrysCapital acquired 90% stake in Credila for Rs10,350 crore while it acquired about 60% stake in Indira IVF at $1.1 billion.
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He said the firm’s investment approach is driven primarily by buyout orientation within its focus sectors, regardless of whether the target company is listed or privately held. He cited past investments such as Hexaware and Coforge, where EQT executed buyout-style investments in publicly traded companies.
“Buyout remains a key focus for us,” he said, adding that such transactions are primarily pursued through EQT’s flagship Asia fund, BPEA IX, as well as its mid-market strategy. He indicated that India continues to be an important geography where the firm expects to deploy capital through control-oriented investments.
Buyout activity in India is being increasingly driven by promoter families exploring ownership transitions, creating a growing pipeline of control deals, he said.
According to Hari, many first-generation entrepreneurs are now seeing the younger generation pursue different interests, prompting families to consider new avenues, including partial or full exits to private equity investors. This shift, he noted, is still at an early stage and is expected to play out over many years.
EQT continues to view healthcare services as a strong investment theme in India, while emphasizing that the broader buyout market in the country remains at an early stage of development.
Hari said the firm sees significant headroom for growth in control-oriented transactions, noting that buyouts are still under-penetrated relative to the size of India’s economy. He added that this creates a long runway for private equity firms to expand their footprint through majority acquisitions.
He said India’s healthcare services sector is still at an early stage of penetration, leaving significant room for expansion across segments. Rising demand, improving affordability and the need for capacity addition are expected to drive sustained growth in areas such as multi-specialty hospitals, diagnostics chains and focused specialty care providers.
According to him, multi-specialty hospitals continue to be a key area of interest, alongside opportunities in diagnostics and single-specialty platforms.
In healthcare, EQT has a presence in India through investment in single specialty sector. In 2022, EQT had acquired a significant minority stake in India’s leading gastroenterology hospital, Hyderabad-based AIG (Asian Institute of Gastroenterology) Hospitals.
EQT is targeting returns of around 2.5 times multiple on invested capital (MOIC) across its funds, with India historically delivering performance comfortably above that benchmark.
Hari noted that the return expectations are supported by India’s strong macroeconomic growth. With the economy expanding at around 7% in real terms, nominal growth typically trends in the low double digits, providing a solid base for investment returns.
He said this underlying growth, combined with operational value creation initiatives such as scaling businesses and executing bolt-on acquisitions, enables private equity investors to target internal rates of return in the low-20% range.
EQT is evaluating opportunities in India’s industrial technology space, though the firm expects investments in the segment to remain limited compared with its core sectors in the near term.
Hari said industrial technology is still an emerging focus area for EQT in India and the firm is at an early stage of building its presence. He noted that the segment broadly covers manufacturing-oriented businesses that could benefit from global supply chain diversification and the increasing shift of production to markets such as India.
However, he indicated that the bulk of EQT’s India investments will continue to come from established sectors such as healthcare, financial services, consumer and pharmaceuticals. “It’s still early days for us in industrial tech, and I would expect the majority of investments to come from our existing sectors rather than something new,” he said.
He cited EQT’s investment in Fujitec, a Japanese elevator manufacturer with a growing India presence, as an example of an industrial technology business with a strong India-led value creation thesis.
While acknowledging the long-term potential driven by manufacturing tailwinds, Hari Gopalakrishnan said the opportunity in industrial technology in India currently remains smaller compared with sectors like healthcare and financial services, where EQT continues to see deeper pipelines.
In the healthcare-tech sector, EQT has a strong presence in India. In 2024, it acquired Los Angeles-based healthcare BPO company GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, which has a strong presence in India;
In 2021, EQT acquired the healthcare services business of Hinduja Global Solutions, for an enterprise value of Rs 9,000 crore ($1.2 billion) in one of the largest PE deals in the outsourcing space, and renamed it Sagility later. EQT owns AGS Health, a medical revenue cycle management (RCM) company.