Dubai-based NRI Siddharth Balachandran, the founder of investment firm Buimerc, is an India bull. He believes that the India growth story is here to stay, and the economy and the stock market will rebound after this current blip. As a Foreign Institutional Investor (FII), Buimerc Core Investment, run by Siddharth, is walking the talk. The Thiruvananthapuram native has invested in National Stock Exchange (NSE), which was recently ranked as the most valuable unlisted Indian company with a valuation of Rs 2.1 trillion.
Siddharth, who made his riches through his construction business in Dubai's property boom of the mid-2000s, has a soft corner for stock exchanges. In addition to NSE, where he owns 0.35%, the 48-year-old also owns 3.2%stake in BSE and another small stake in Metropolitan Stock Exchange. The high networth investor now plans to convert his FII-registered Buimerc Core Investments into a domestic institutional investor (DII) under Buimerc Investments, and directly invest in Indian secondary market and quality unlisted companies.
"I would like to be known not as a FII but as a DII. It does two things: it reinforces faith in the Indian market, at the same time, it also ties me with the fortune of India as a growing economy," he says. He bases his argument on the government's target to make the Indian economy to $30 trillion by 2047. And, this is not considering the amount that gets added to the GDP due to the adoption of artificial intelligence and the sops in this year's union budget. "I believe if AI adoption is sped up even 50% of what it is, we believe our GDP and the Rs 1 lakh crore that is coming into the hands of retail investors following tax sops, will have a multiplier effect and will increase to Rs 10 lakh crore worth investments," Siddharth,, who spent his formative years in Kochi, and schooling in Chennai, says.
Ask him about the recent plunge in Indian stock prices. The bellwether Nifty index is down 14.5% from the September peak while Sensex is off 13.9%. The pain is even more severe in small and mid-caps where the market is in a bear grip with a wipe off of more than 20% from the record highs. Siddharth is not perturbed. "The fluctuation in the market is purely because the FIIs have some other needs in some other country, which has nothing to do with India. It's a short-term view," he says. "I'm a net buyer. I rarely sell. So, any sort of revaluation of any companies which is reflected in the stock market, I use it as an opportunity to buy."
Siddharth plans to convert Buimerc Core Investments, the Indian holding company, into an NBFC. "We are in the process of converting the holding company into an NBFC. Subsequent to that, the dream and vision is to have an indigenous Indian investment entity that is listed and unlisted companies. That's the aspiration," he says.
In the recent past, I would like to make an Indian entity to invest in Indian resident funds. As a fundamental driven investor, it's important to give time, and strategically and patriotism as well, if we can allocate resident rupee funds as investment and happily pay whatever tax that is owed, I think we will be contributing to the larger cycle. Because, I believe that if you are in a jurisdiction, one should contribute as much as one can in that jurisdiction.
Among his investments, he says his holding in BSE is the oldest, in 2009. He invested in NSE in 2014-15. Recently, Siddharth has invested some funds in SBI. One thing that he has refrained from is investing in startups. "One thing I won't do or haven't done is startup as yet. Because nothing has fulfilled my criteria," he says.
Buimerc has investments in other jurisdictions as well. "That's the beauty of being in Dubai. We have credible, specific private banking relationships that you can disseminate. I only invest in regulated markets. The USA is one, we do invest in Switzerland. Though we generally prefer listed stocks, we are not averse to unlisted stocks," he says.
Siddharth is also involved in philanthropic activities in India through Kochi-based Buimerc India Foundation.Recently, a German financial firm has shown interest in associating with the mangrove restoration program initiated by Buimerc India Foundation. The unique project to be implemented with M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) aims to spearhead a three-year mangrove restoration project to protect the coastal ecosystem of Kerala.