Blackstone India to focus on real estate; to create office & warehousing spaces

India is plagued with a slowing economy and lack of finance currently, Blackstone's chairman Stephen Schwarzman said, hinting that the global private equity major may be interested in distressed asset play in the country. Speaking to reporters at the IIT-Bombay, he also said the country is lacking the robustness in financial institutions. Blackstone has been present in India since 2006 and has invested USD 15 billion in the country, including private equity play in enterprises and also bets on realty. Schwarzman, who is also the chief executive and co-founder of Blackstone, said his company is "bullish" on India, but from a long term perspective. To a question on distressed asset investing, which a lot of its global peers have entered into, he said, "issues with india are more about slowing economic growth and limited credit extension by the banking system and neobanks and that should create more need for owners of companies to look for other sources of liquidity." "For us, if there is something very attractive here, we've a lot of long term confidence in india. So, we will be very active buyers or lenders in this market," he added. The company has a dry powder of USD 150 billion of committed money yet to find takers globally which makes it the best placed to take care of such requirements, he said.