MUMBAI
:
India has emerged as Temasek Holdings’ best-performing market over the previous 10 years, a key factor in the Singapore state investor’s total exposure to the country soaring to $37 billion.
“In the last 10 years across all geographies, India has been the best in terms of returns,” said Vishesh Shrivastav, managing director (India), Temasek, in an interview with Mint on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Temasek said its exposure to India stood at $37 billion (equivalent to S$49 billion), including the financial interest from its portfolio firm SingTel’s investment in Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Temasek owns 52% in SingTel, which in turn owns around 29% stake in Airtel).
“It is the highest (mark-to-market exposure to India) so far. This is the value of our direct investments and the mark-to-market of our portfolio (and) of our subsidiaries as well,” said Shrivastav.
Expanding opportunities
Temasek did not disclose its total mark-to-market exposure to India in previous years as this is a new metric that the firm is tracking. But the firm said its direct India portfolio had increased to $21 billion in 2023-24 from $16 billion in FY23.
Temasek’s direct investments portfolio has expanded to 7% of its total assets under management, up from 6% last year and 4% in 2020. This was driven by $3 billion worth of fresh investments in India by Temasek in FY24, including the mark-to-market valuation of its portfolio.
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Temasek expects to maintain its pace of investments.
“At this point in time, we see more opportunities than ever,” Shrivastav said on the Singapore firm’s investment plans in India. “India’s GDP has grown by 7% over last year. There are more entrepreneurs who are willing to take long-term capital, companies have also become larger, and the quality of opportunities has increased.”
Temasek invests across four broad themes focussed on digitization, sustainable living, future of consumption, and longer lifespans, according to its annual report.
Last year, the firm invested $3 billion in India, of which nearly $2 billion was put to work in Manipal Hospitals. It also invested ₹1,200 crore in Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd’s electric vehicle business, apart from investments in Ola Electric, Lenskart, and Niva Bupa.
Last year, Temasek said it would invest $9 billion to $10 million in India over 3 years. “We have maintained that run-rate. We still feel we can do $9 billion to $10 billion of direct investments into India over the next 3 years. What our portfolio companies do will be in addition to that,” Shrivastav said.
IPOs and exits
Temasek is also gearing up for several of its portfolio companies in India to list on stock markets over the next 24 months. Ola Electric and Niva Bupa have already filed for a public listing.
“We will make sure—as we have been doing for 20 years—that all of our companies move towards a potential listing. Several may happen over the next 24 months, some of them even earlier,” Shrivastav said.
Several portfolio companies of Temasek such as Ola Cabs and Dr Agarwal’s Healthcare are also actively working towards an IPO. UpGrad and Lenskart have stated their intent to list.
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Due to Temasek’s nature as permanent capital—it does not raise external capital unlike several other firms—it has more flexibility with respect to selling its investments and is less impacted by the market, Shrivastav said.
The firm is also not bound to exit immediately if a portfolio company goes public. Temasek has booked profits of $700 million-$800 million on some of its portfolio companies in India, such as Zomato and Policybazaar in FY24. While it exited Policybazaar, it retains over a 4% stake in Zomato, which it first entered in 2015.
Temasek marginally trimmed its exposure to Zomato last year after adding to its position in November and December 2022, when the shares were trading lower.
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