ADVERTISEMENT

Renaissance Investment Managers Sees Opportunity In India’s Internet Economy

The internet economy of India is now really taking shape, says Pankaj Murarka, chief investment officer at Renaissance Investment.

India, according to Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report, has the world’s <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/india-has-worlds-second-largest-internet-user-base">second-largest</a> internet user base, that’s in part due to Reliance Jio. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg)
India, according to Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report, has the world’s second-largest internet user base, that’s in part due to Reliance Jio. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg)

Renaissance Investment Managers is betting big on India’s boom in data consumption.

We see massive opportunities in companies whose primary business is offering internet services in India, Pankaj Murarka, chief investment officer of the fund manager, told BloombergQuint in an interaction.

“The internet economy of India is now really taking shape.”

“The average consumption of data, which was about 2GB (gigabytes) two years ago is now 10GB due to the evolution of smartphones,” Murarka said. “We have a handful of companies in the listed space and they have been delivering healthy growth.”

India, according to Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report, has the world’s second-largest internet user base—nearly 12 percent of the 3.8 billion people using the internet globally. That’s in part due to cheap tariffs offered by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., which triggered a brutal pricing war and consolidation in the telecom sector.

Highlights From The Conversation:

On Markets

  • Expect markets to correct 5-10 percent, which is inevitable.
  • That’s due to NBFC crisis which are having robust effects on financial sector.
  • Investors concerned about the banks having exposure to NBFCs.

How To Play With Fresh Money

  • Private banks are our favourite.

On Consumption Sector:

  • Staples are the best in the consumer basket.
  • They’re the least impacted by the slowdown that affected some lenders.

On NBFCs:

  • Expect changes in the sector in the next few months.
  • Don’t think it’s the end of the road for smaller non-bank lenders.

Watch the entire conversation here: