Blackstone’s GCC in Bengaluru anchors fresh $50 billion India plan

Bengaluru: Blackstone has launched a global capability centre (GCC) in Bengaluru, its first outside the US, underscoring India’s growing importance to the investment firm’s global operations. The move comes as the firm looks to double its investments in India to $100 billion over the next five years from about $51 billion invested to date.Blackstone vice-chairman and CFO Michael Chae said the Bengaluru team would be closely integrated with the firm’s global operations and support functions spanning finance, technology, human resources, legal and compliance.“We have about 170 employees in India, of whom around 90 are in Mumbai, our headquarters. We have been running our investment operations in Mumbai very successfully for two decades now. Bengaluru currently has about 80 employees, and that team will grow, as will our Mumbai team. They will work closely with our teams around the world to help drive our operations globally,” Chae said.The centre is not intended to function as a standalone unit. Its expansion reflects the firm’s growing operational needs as Blackstone’s assets under management have quadrupled over the past decade to nearly $1.4 trillion.The Bengaluru GCC is led by Susan Yung, senior managing director in credit and insurance investment operations. Yung previously worked in India and was managing director at Goldman Sachs’ captive centre in Bengaluru. Blackstone has also hired senior leaders across key functions, including engineering, whose team will work with the firm’s global chief technology officer.The Bengaluru team is expected to grow to 100 or more employees by the end of the year, Chae said.Blackstone’s biggest investments in India include Mphasis, Federal Bank and commercial property. The company is said to be India’s largest institutional commercial real estate owner, with $22 billion in assets and control over more than 150 million sq ft of office and retail space. These properties cater particularly to technology companies, including other GCCs. Blackstone-backed companies have been involved in five of India’s six real estate investment trusts (REITs), including Embassy REIT.On AI’s potential impact on jobs and office demand, Chae said it was too early to conclude that the technology would lead to widespread job losses. “We don’t see AI as some existential negative for IT services companies. Like most businesses, there’s an opportunity to get ahead of the risk of disruption and enable their own tools and services,” he said, noting that predictions of a “job apocalypse” had not materialised.Chae cited Mphasis as an example of a company using AI to strengthen its business. He said Blackstone continued to assess service providers on the capabilities they could bring to its portfolio companies.Many businesses, he said, would continue to rely on IT services partners rather than build all their AI capabilities in-house, given the investment and time required.Blackstone’s other investment themes include travel and leisure, including luxury hotels; technology and AI infrastructure, including Neysa and AirTrunk; and manufacturing and e-commerce. Its logistics platform, Horizon Industrial Parks, has scaled up to become India’s largest logistics park platform.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.