Foreign varsity majors come calling

San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS), Brown University and Texas Investment Management have joined the list of global pension, endowment and universities' funds that are attracted by the humungous opportunities from the booming Indian stock markets.

San Francisco Employees' Retirement System, which manages more than $17 billion assets under management and committed close to $3 billion to private equity, is upbeat of what it sees in India, especially infrastructure, consumer-oriented firms and energy, said E David Ellington, its trustee and commissioner.

He spoke to Business Standard on the sidelines of the Asian Private Equity and Venture Forum, organised by the Asian Venture Capital Journal, which concluded here on Wednesday.

"We will get more active in this market. We like infrastructure and related-companies, consumer-oriented firms and the energy firms. We see opportunity everywhere," he said.

The retirement fund is also limited partners (LPs) in private equity funds managed by TPG and Blackstone. It has recently committed about $15 million to Squadron Capital, a Hong Kong-based fund of funds that invests in pan-Asia.

SFERS is also planning to invest into two more funds that will have exposure to the Indian market, Ellington said.

Brown University, an endowment fund that invests across all asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity, commodity and real estate has made few investments in India-specific funds as well.

Another fund that is eyeing the booming Indian market is the University of Texas Investment Management.

Lindel Eakman, its managing director, private markets group, said: "We have been investing here and it is the right time to be in India."

Indian markets have given returns in excess of 40 per cent-plus annually in the last 3 years, attracting over 1,100 foreign institutional investors into the market.

Challenges for the fund are higher valuations, limited number of investible deals, limited number of entrepreneurs and professional teams and a lot of money is pouring in a little bit early than it should be, he spells out.