Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s State investment company, has invested around S$1 billion every year for the last five years in India and will continue to progressively increase its exposure, Ravi Lambah, Senior Managing Director & Joint Head, Temasek India, said.

The Indian market is a consumption play with themes such as increasing urbanisation, young population, growing middle-class and other related advantages that Temasek finds attractive and aligned with its own preferences, he said. He drew comfort from the ongoing implementation of reform measures such as GST, the crackdown on NPA problem, the relatively stable currency as well as improving macro numbers on fiscal deficit, current deficit and inflation. Financial services, telecom, media, technology, FMCG and healthcare sectors will continue to dominate the portfolio preferences, he said.

India accounts for about 5 per cent of the S$275-billion portfolio of Temasek worldwide. Asked about opportunities for investment, Ravi said Temasek held the view that we were headed into a lower growth world, but there were still opportunities in individual sectors which the institution would tap with a bottoms-up approach.

He said the fund would not hesitate to increase exposure in its existing investments if they met the desired criteria, since it was not fearful of concentration risk or constrained by it. As a long-term investor, the organisation was prepared to wait for suitable opportunities and take exposure accordingly, he said.

Asked whether Temasek would invest in infrastructure themes, Ravi pointed to investments in companies such as Singapore Airlines, Ascendas-Singbridge, Sembcorp Industries, and Singapore Telecommunications, among others, and said Temasek preferred to route its investments in these (infra) sectors through its portfolio companies.