India's growth to speed up in years ahead: J Frank Brown

J Frank Brown, managing director and COO of General Atlantic, spoke to NDTV's Namrata Brar on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He also discussed India as an investment destination.

Here's full transcript of the interview:

NAMRATA BRAR: J Frank Brown is the chief at General Atlantic, which manages over $17 billion in terms of assets and businesses worldwide. It's such a pleasure to have you here Mr Brown.

J FRANK BROWN: Thank you, it's great to be here.

NAMRATA BRAR: I read in one of your comments, "Investing is like networking, you need both to succeed," and (for that) no better place from Davos I can imagine.

J FRANK BROWN: Well, Davos was great for us from a lot of perspectives. A lot of our investors are here as well as companies we have invested in, so it's a great place to be in. Networking is the name of the game (here).

NAMRATA BRAR: Ok, let's come to your business. Since you have invested in so many different kinds of companies at this point of time, how worried are you of the global economy? As it seems, CEO confidence is not very hot here...

J FRANK BROWN: We are worried about the global economy. We are seeing a lot of great spots but we get very involved with people and with entrepreneurs and we believe that successful business models will do really well regardless of the economic environments. So we are investing in entrepreneurs' businesses that we think have a business model and that's the way we operate.

NAMRATA BRAR: In this environment, A) can we raise money, and B) can you raise money for India?

J FRANK BROWN: Our model is a little bit different. See, we have long term investors as partners with us and we don't have a fund. But we are always in fund raising mood because we are always building a relationship with new investors as well as maintaining a relationship with our existing investors. Most importantly, we have an extremely diversified portfolio and we don't raise money for any particular geography or sector, so whoever invests with us gets a piece of us and most investors like that because it is fast diversification. So we are in a very good environment.

NAMRATA BRAR: In India, you have a bunch of investment. You have IndusInd, Asian Genco Pte Ltd, IBX Software, Hexaware, Infotech, Genpact, big space there and NSE (National Stock Exchange), a big space there as well.

J FRANK BROWN: Exactly.

NAMRATA BRAR: Now, let me ask a little bit about these companies. Let me talk about the IT companies first- Hexaware, IBS Infotech and Genpact...

J FRANK BROWN: Well, Genpact- we recently have sold most of our position in most of our transaction, it was a phenomenal investment for us. We have been there from the beginning. It's actually good case study for us how General Atlantic works. We are very active, an active member of the board. We work with the management. We were in Genpact for 8 years and we still have small position but we are active investors for 8 years and we love the space in terms of Indian outsourcing; and it worked well and it has been a great investment for us and we are very excited about Indusind and Fourcee, which is a new investment in the logistic space, so each of our investments will have a story that will play out for about 5 to 7/8 years but the common threat is something that we see as an interesting model in an area where the country certainly needs it and has an opportunity to scale an entrepreneur we like and a management team that we like...

NAMRATA BRAR: What about your decision to invest in NSE? Do you see tremendous potential in Indian stock market?

J FRANK BROWN: Well, stock exchange has the major theme for us. We became a part of New York Stock Exchange and BM&F of Bovespa in South America and Brazil, and I see electrification of exchanges. We are also in GetCo, which is a high speed trading. So technology enabling advancement of trading in more free exchanges of securities and markets- that's a constant theme, so we are very bullish on the stock market business in India

NAMRATA BRAR: When you look at the theme in India, do you go sector wise or is there a tendency to go more than the services route? Because I noticed you have expertise globally in that space...

J FRANK BROWN: We have expertise in financial services. IndusInd, of which, we are extremely excited about and I just mentioned Fourcee. Services and business services has been a theme to us for many years going back almost in the beginning of 80's but we are a very thematic investors and so if we see a business model that we think has opportunity, scale and potential to expand into new business in a particular area (or) sector, (then) that is going to be very interesting for us.

NAMRATA BRAR: I know that you are not raising funds yourself but you are obviously helping your companies raise funds. So the sense am getting is it's not easy to get money...

J FRANK BROWN: Well, again we are always raising funds but ours is a long term relationship concept. What I will tell you is that it does take longer but still the end result is there. From our stand point 1 think, I would say, debt markets are extremely attractive and open and so growth companies like ours, if you know, we put in a lot of capital but also an opportunity for acquisition through debt, particularly in the US increasingly than elsewhere in the world, so there is plenty of money. What is going to drive us to raise money as an investor is track record - interesting transaction in your history and where you are in the world - but our story globally diversifies. Sectorial diversified long term investing is a good story.

NAMRATA BRAR: I know every company is unique but do you get a sense from your large India group that they are disappointed with the way the government vowed on certain policies and the way growth rate has slipped way below 6 per cent, that there is a general sense of fatigue out there?

J FRANK BROWN: I think the story of India is a rest period and hopefully that will result in the next period of fast growth.

NAMRATA BRAR: How long do you think the rest period will last?

J FRANK BROWN: A couple of years.

NAMRATA BRAR: So, about 2016, 2017?

J FRANK BROWN: I am not a little more optimistic than that. I think in some levels India has weathered the storm as well, a year ago it looked little worse than what it looks now so we are bullish and are looking at very discreet business models. We see a lot of interesting companies and interesting space and when I look more macro in India, the story is always the same- when is the infra going to get to a level where you can get to an airport in Mumbai in less than 3 hours. I had a terrible experience, a recent one. And given a background in education, there is need for an expansion particularly in trade school and skilling up in India and those are going to be the drivers, hopefully of next generations, of tremendous success...

NAMRATA BRAR: Just for our viewers, you have been the dean of INSEAD for 5 years till 2011. Let me go back to your global portfolio since there are much of interesting companies there - Tory Burch, Gilt Groupe - the more fashion oriented, then you have BOX, a cloud computing site, you have got China's Alibaba on the ecommerce, which is, of course, exciting and then you just invested in a Turkish food company as well. Please talk about some of these interesting stories.

J FRANK BROWN: One of the great things about General Atlantic is that we are truly global. We operate in every geography, every sector and we are looking to build a relationship with entrepreneurs, which will lead to very great success stories. So Tory Burch is a phenomenal brand, we love it, it's a great opportunity. And hence the capital is needed to drive next generation of growth. You mentioned Yemek Sepeti (Turkish food company), Turkish seamless web food ordering business. Another one we are pleased with is Axel Springer, online classified business. A different model for us but the company said it would like to spin off one of our fastest growing businesses and give it opportunities on to the next level and we have been acquiring a lot of companies so it is really very specific in terms of entrepreneurs or great business ideas in which we see potential, we back them.

NAMRATA BRAR: Do you still think Facebook has potential since you are an investor?

J FRANK BROWN: We are an investor in Facebook. We have always loved the business model, we did have few hiccups at the IPO times but we feel good about the companies now and it has certainly come back a bit.

NAMRATA BRAR: Maybe a good play for value in the longer run.

J FRANK BROWN: We are very bullish on the investment.

NAMRATA BRAR: Alright, thank you so much.

J FRANK BROWN: Thank you, my pleasure.