A decade after opening its doors in Mumbai, CPP Investments has become one of India’s largest institutional investors. To mark the anniversary, Hari Krishna, Managing Director & Mumbai Office Head, sat down with the Insights Institute to reflect on the strategic milestones in that journey. He explains the pivotal choices that drove progress, the importance of a local presence, and the themes that will shape the next decade of growth for one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The following has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Let’s start with your own journey. What brought you to CPP Investments?
I was born and raised in India and I got my education in finance at the University of Delhi. My first introduction to CPP Investments came when I was working with another firm, an alternative asset manager, where I co-led their real estate investment business. We were engaged in conversations with CPP Investments about a potential real estate deal.
CPP Investments ended up choosing a different partner at the time, but having observed the organization from the outside, I was very impressed with its purpose, which seemed quite unique to me. I was also taken by the scale of the organization and its long-term horizon. It was a big reason why I decided to join the organization in 2014, but in the London office. It wasn’t until the next year that the Mumbai office opened, and I was among the first two or three people on the ground.
Can you describe the market in India then?
At the time, India was less popular as an investment destination than it is today for a variety of reasons, including stagflation.
CPP Investments demonstrated long-term conviction in the India opportunity, we took a “crawl, walk, run” approach, effectively building up our risk understanding, investing in our franchise and continuing to identify the best possible opportunities.
CPP Investments’ first exposure to India came in 2009 via private equity fund investments, then we moved to direct investments in real assets in 2013 and 2014. Within two years of the office opening in 2015, we had roughly $5 billion in assets under management (AUM) in the country, and we were expanding into programmatic joint ventures with best-in-class partners. We further expanded into renewables and credit and continue to grow our public equities book. Our AUM is now close to $30 billion, or about 4.5% of the entire Fund, and CPP Investments is among the top five institutional investors in the country.
What does having a local presence in India enable that wouldn’t be possible otherwise?
It makes us a first port of call for interesting, high-quality opportunities. It’s always easier to pick up the phone and call someone. That’s an advantage for new opportunities, but also for asset management and capital recycling. We gain advance insights that the rest of the market isn’t able to capture until further down the road. We can act faster and this helps with both value creation and value preservation.
CPP Investments has built a unique franchise in India. In many ways, it’s been a deliberate and measured approach. Our investment program across different industries has involved partnering with market leaders. This approach has resonated with prospective partners and positions us well relative to the wider market. In some ways, that’s a goodwill franchise — and an intangible asset on the balance sheet.
What major investment themes are shaping India today?
The main investment theme in India today comes from a significant push by the government on productivity improvements over the past decade. It is hard in any major economy to raise productivity, but it is happening in India through impactful reforms in bankruptcy laws, labour markets, and major infrastructure spending. I would say India has seen more investment in its physical infrastructure assets in the last ten years than it saw in the previous few decades.
India is now the fastest growing major economy in the world, so that combination of growth and productivity is a powerful one, creating an economy that relies less on fiscal and monetary policy. As India has gotten wealthier, there has been a lot more domestic and international capital moving into equity markets. In 2024, India was the second-largest IPO market in the world, behind the U.S., but ahead of China.
In addition, we’re investing along themes like deglobalization, decarbonization, digitalization, and demographics. AI is also an emerging theme, with major global players investing in data centers and other assets in India. Our Indian investments all reflect those themes.
From your perspective, how has the Mumbai office contributed to CPP Investments’ global strategy? And how have the insights and approaches developed there influenced the Fund’s thinking globally?
Mumbai investment teams have led and contributed to strategy formulation across several departments such as Real Assets (infrastructure, real estate) and Private Equity (growth equity). Similarly, T&O teams have contributed to delivering key strategic capabilities for the Fund.
In 2021, CPP Investments established a technology and data team in Mumbai. That team has grown significantly since then—can you describe its impact?
We now have a 55-person tech and data team on the ground, supporting six different functions, including information security, risk, Total Fund Management, Active Equities, and batch operations. When we launched this project in 2021, it wasn’t just about India as an investment destination—it was also about India as a talent destination.
It has made us very connected within the global organization. All our teams have leaned on each other and learned from each other; it’s been a collaborative effort.
There has been a lot of learning along the way, but I would say the Mumbai team has grown from an execution role to more of a thought partnership role. Our India office has been set up for success thanks to a multi-year collaborative effort from our other offices to get it running the way it is today.
That validates the strategy and there is an appreciation that the platform has worked with both intended and unintended benefits.
Looking ahead, what does the next decade look like for CPP Investments in India?
For a market that can sometimes pose challenges, our overall experience has been positive not just in terms of investment performance but also in other ways.
From a talent perspective, there are several examples of people who have worked in the India office who have gone on to lead teams or be part of teams in other offices. CPP Investments’ talent strategy is truly global.
We have invested in a deeper understanding of some of the risks inherent in the market and have endeavoured to optimize risk.
We are now in the third stage of the “crawl, walk, run” strategy that I mentioned earlier. We have access to the highest quality of opportunities and have gained experience in recycling our capital.
We have a very long horizon for India. We have a fairly long horizon for our partnerships. But our horizon for individual assets is a little more tactical and more relative value driven. We’ve done repeat business with the same partners which is always good to do.
We are quite excited about what lies ahead because it has been a successful experience so far.
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