Trade winds shift as Gulf companies tap India’s trillion dollar economy | beyondbrics | FT.com

The trade winds of the Indian Ocean helped sailors move goods from the subcontinent to the Gulf and Africa. Despite strong trade and labour links, there has been an historic mismatch in the amount of investment flowing in the other direction, from the oil-rich Gulf to India. But the trade winds appear to be shifting, as evidenced by UAE telecoms operator Etisalat recent deal to take a 26 per cent stake in India’s second-largest mobile phone operator, Reliance Communications and today’s announcement by UAE’s Evolvence Capital that it will launch its third India-focused private equity fund.


Run by UAE national Khaled al-Muhairy, the Dubai-based alternative investments company was one of the first Gulf investment funds to target India during the pre-crisis boom as the Gulf searched far and wide to place surplus petrodollars.

Evolvence, which has already closed a $250m Indian-focused fund-of-funds and a $90m life sciences fund, will seek to raise $400m for Evolvence India Fund II as it focuses on mid-market targets in a broad range of sectors.