Goldman's gold rush

Wall Street firms may be still reeling under the subprime crisis and cutting back on investment, but not Goldman Sachs. The venerable firm is out shopping with a vengeance—at least in India.

Result: it has been a hectic past few months for Goldman in the country. In May, it bought a minority stake in Mahindra & Mahindra by investing Rs 700 crore and in June invested Rs 200 crore in an engineering company, Sterling & Wilson.

The list of other recent investments includes companies such as TVS Logistics, NDTV, PTC Financial Services, Times Innovative Media and Tejas Networks, in addition to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and NCDEX. Says Vikram Utam Singh, Head (PE), KPMG: “The long-term growth story is intact and there will be enough opportunities for PE players in the future. Fund raising for the Indian promoters has become extremely difficult, and PE is a good alternative.”

Also, don’t forget Goldman is the original emerging markets bull. And in India’s case, Goldman is putting its money where its mouth is.

—Manu Kaushik