BANGALORE -(Dow Jones)- U.S. banking major JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) will bring in private equity investments worth $800 million to $1 billion to India over the next two years, the chief executive of the company's Indian operations said Friday.
"The private equity investments will be in the form of equity, quasi equity instruments and it will be spread across sectors," Kalpana Morparia told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.
She also said the bank currently has no plans of entering the retail banking segment in the country, but is keen to strengthen its corporate banking, investment banking and asset management businesses.
There is continued foreign fund interest in India and China and the prospects of the Indian stock markets are bright in the medium- and long-term, she said.
"Given India's growth trajectory of 8%-8.5%, given the sheer size of India's population, and the rise in per capita income, the increase, therefore, in domestic savings itself which will go into the market...I would have a very bright view of the stock market," she said.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensitive Index, or Sensex, has lost about 33% in the year so far, with foreign funds having withdrawn $8.89 billion to date after having put in $17.24 billion in 2007.
"There's no sense of diminishing interest in India (by foreign investors). If you look at the growth in the gross domestic product, the largest is going to come from China and India, therefore, these are the two countries which are very big thrust areas for us," she said.
The Reserve Bank of India expects the economy to expand around 8% in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, slower than the 9% growth clocked in the last fiscal year.
Separately, Morparia said despite the recent fall in inflation, she doesn't expect interest rates to come down "as yet."
India's inflation rate for the week ended Sept. 13 was 12.14% on the year, unchanged from the previous week, but still significantly above the central bank's upwardly revised comfort level.
Published by CNN
