Blackstone appoints Ami Momaya to lead India infrastructure investments

Mumbai: Global private equity (PE) firm Blackstone has appointed Ami Momaya as managing director and head of infrastructure for India, launching the firm’s infrastructure platform in the country and expanding its regional capabilities across the Asia-Pacific (Apac) region.

Momaya is Blackstone’s first dedicated infrastructure hire in Apac. Her appointment builds on the firm’s more than two decades of investment experience in Asia and signals a push to deploy its global infrastructure expertise in one of the region’s fastest-growing markets.

“India is one of the most compelling infrastructure markets in the world, driven by strong economic growth, accelerating digitalization, and continued policy support,” Momaya said.

Momaya joins Blackstone from KKR India, where she was a managing director. Before that, she held senior investment roles at the National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF) and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. She spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley and played a key role in establishing its Indian infrastructure business.

“Infrastructure remains a strategic priority for the firm, and we continue to see significant opportunities across Apac’s fast-growing markets. Establishing our platform in the region strengthens our ability to bring Blackstone’s global scale, expertise, and long-term capital to invest in the critical infrastructure underpinning economic growth,” said Sean Klimczak, global head of infrastructure at Blackstone.

Blackstone has identified three key areas of interest in India’s infrastructure market: digital infrastructure, energy transition driven by climate change and transportation. The focus areas are part of the firm’s broader global infrastructure strategy and have particular relevance to India.

Its digital infrastructure focus includes data centres and telecom towers. Blackstone’s infrastructure platform, which has $84 billion in assets under management, has continued to build momentum across Apac through investments including AirTrunk, the region’s leading data centre platform.

The infrastructure push is part of a broader expansion of Blackstone’s India operations. The US-based investment firm last year outlined plans to build out its credit and infrastructure businesses in the country, complementing its private equity and real estate operations.

The expansion comes as India has emerged as Blackstone’s best-performing region globally in terms of investment returns over the past 5 to 10 years. Its private equity and real estate businesses also recorded a record year for exits in 2024, Mint reported earlier.

Blackstone’s strong performance in India is expected to help the firm identify more investment opportunities and double its assets under management in the country over the next three years. .

Priyamvada is a Mumbai-based business journalist at Mint. She writes about the public and private markets with a key focus on venture capital, private equity, M&As and private credit. Her coverage also spans startups and emerging businesses.<br><br>Over the last two years, she has uncovered some of the largest deals and interviewed important decision-makers from India’s investment ecosystem. She likes to dabble across different formats like long forms and explainers. Her work has been consistently displayed on the publication's deals page, and she has also written multiple front-page stories.<br><br>Prior to joining Mint in 2024, she worked out of Reuters’ Bengaluru bureau where she extensively covered the travel, transportation, and logistics industries. Across both her stints, Priyamvada has displayed rigour for breaking news and analyzing interesting data-driven trends. She holds a postgraduate diploma from the Asian College of Journalism's Bloomberg programme. In her free time, she enjoys reading books and trying out different cuisines. She is keen to delve deeper into the various sectors she covers and is always up for a chat. You can reach out to her at priyamvada.c@livemint.com...