India would be the subsequent massive factor for electrical automobiles, a sector by which Qatar Investment Authority may be very eager to deploy extra capital, a high govt the Middle East fund mentioned.

Innovation in any sector is essential for QIA and extra just lately, “the electric vehicle (EV) space is where we have been investing a lot,” mentioned Abdulla Al-Kuwari, head of Asia-Pacific investments at Qatar Investment Authority (AIQ) Advisory on the tenth Milken Asia Summit in Singapore.

Al-Kuwari is predicated in Singapore and QIA Advisory is the Asia arm of the Middle East sovereign wealth fund.

QIA is the world’s 10^th largest SWF, in keeping with the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. The wealth fund was arrange in 2005 to successfully handle Qatar’s income from liquefied pure gasoline.

The fund is an energetic investor in Asia.

QIA, together with heavy different heavyweight buyers comparable to Blackrock, in May invested $908.7 million funding for a minority stake in SK On Co., the world’s fifth-largest battery maker and based mostly in South Korea,

“China is one of the biggest markets for us in terms of energy transition. They are ahead of many markets in this space. India will likely be the next one in the EV space for us to deploy capital,” Al-Kuwari mentioned.

India’s EV market will develop with a CAGR of 49% between 2022 and 2030, with 10 million annual gross sales by 2030, in keeping with the Indian Economic Survey 2023 by India’s finance ministry.

India reached a serious milestone of 1 million EVs offered in 2022, with electrical two-wheelers accounting for a serious share of these gross sales.

Other worldwide firms have additionally been stepping up their EV commitments in India. 

British Petroleum has made two investments in India within the final six months, each in electrical car startups. In April it backed EV supply firm Magenta in April and backed the $42m fundraising spherical of BluSmart Mobility, an EV-only ride-hailing firm, in May.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor additionally earlier this 12 months mentioned it plans to take a position about $2.5 billion within the EV sector over the following 10 years in India.

Taiwanese contract producer Foxconn additionally just lately introduced its plan to arrange a manufacturing line for two-wheeler EVs in India.

India’s retail sector can be of excessive curiosity to QIA. The fund invested $1 billion in Reliance Retail Ventures, a unit of a enterprise conglomerate managed by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. “In India, we believe in the retail space,” mentioned Al-Kuwari.

QIA is an energetic investor in Asia.
Image credit score: Shutterstock

INVESTMENT THEMES

QIA arrange its Singapore workplace in 2021 to realize entry to Asia’s largest firms and buyers. “We build an on-the-ground team for every country that is important to us and look for long-term partners in there,” he mentioned.

Some of the themes that QIA is at present engaged on with companions embrace “the growth of retail markets over the next five to 10 years, technology becoming very big in the Asia region, and the growth of new economy real estate.”

New economic system actual property refers to actual property that profit from ‘megatrend’ applied sciences and improvements.

Examples embrace the buildings that home web and bio-life science know-how analysis entities and laboratories, communication towers that transmit information, and the properties concerned in logistics, particularly associated to e-commerce.

One instance of that form of funding: QIA was a part of the $150 million funding spherical for India’s logistics and warehousing participant IndoSpace Logistics Parks IV (ILP IV) that was introduced in September.

Healthcare innovation is one other interesting space of alternative. “We look at innovation in the healthcare and pharma sector… the biotechnology sector is a big market for us,” says Al-Kuwari.

QIA invested $45 million in a sequence B funding spherical for Chinese biotech firm Oricell Therapeutics in February.

MORE PRIVATE CREDIT

While QIA has been investing in US and European personal credit score, Al-Kuwari mentioned the fund is now seeking to Asia to take a position on this area.

“We either invest directly or with a partner or side-by-side with a local sponsor. We try to find local partners in each of the countries for private credit. So, for example in India, we have a local partner and we have been doing private credit in real estate for many years and we are going to continue doing so. Overall, when we look at a specific company to invest in, usually it is an existing partner of ours.”

These firms have be ones the fund is aware of very properly, have good enterprise fashions and want danger capital, he added.