John Graham, president and CEO of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and his team’s week-long trip to India had a singular objective – attractive investment opportunities in the country. To identify the best ones, Graham and his team met with not just finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman but several stakeholders, domestic venture capital funds and a dozen start-up founders.

He is obviously pleased with what he has heard from them so far. “We continue to remain constructive and look for opportunities in India across sectors. We are encouraged by the environment created to attract foreign direct investment. We are interested in the Indian economy whose breadth is encouraging,” Graham said.

CPPIB’s portfolio in India reflects this breadth as its investments range from edtech and e-commerce to infrastructure.

Like other large global asset managers, CPPIB is looking at India rather seriously as the country offers a wide variety of investment opportunities across public, private markets and alternative assets. Graham discussed with the finance minister possible opportunities that could arise from the National Monetisation Pipeline as infrastructure projects account for a significant portion of its C$19.6-billion investments in India. Its formidable kitty, sourced from retirement contributions in Canada, gives it not only visibility of funds but also their duration. This places it in a unique position of taking long-term investment calls, which is why it is a big investor in infra assets and infra investment trusts.

India is uniquely placed because not only does it have a thriving start-up ecosystem but it is also driving the sustainability agenda very seriously, Graham said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment towards becoming net zero by 2070 ties in very well with global money managers like CPPIB, which already has transition assets to the tune of C$67 billion in its sustainability portfolio, which includes green and transition assets.

It wants to double this portfolio of assets by 2030. CPP Investments has pledged to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions across all scopes by 2050. It also plans to achieve carbon neutrality for its own internal operations by the end of FY23. Graham said: “We are investing in energy transition and believe the world will go to net zero and traditional energy players will play a role in this.” This should come as music to the ears of Indian companies which are targeting to build green energy assets. CPP’s play in its transition assets include investments in electric vehicle battery manufacturer and EV charging infra company ChargePoint. In India, it has invested in ReNew Power as part of its transition investments plan. Barring that, its biggest investments in India include Byju’s, PGInvit, NHAI Invit, Emeritus, Indinfravit, Flipkart, Kotak Mahindra Bank and RMZ Corp, among others.

Given that it is not driven by rigid investment guidelines either in terms of sectors or geographies, CPP Investments tends to chase long-term opportunities that create superior returns. Graham believes that the move to net zero offers tremendous opportunities, as companies need to transition and there is real appetite for renewables. Soon after taking over as the CEO in February 2021, Graham created the Sustainable Energy Group within CPPIB to evaluate investment opportunities across the entire energy transition narrative.

This also ties in rather well with the ESG filter that most asset managers are currently deploying to make investments. Barring this, CPPIB will look at investment opportunities in the pharma and healthcare space if they come at the right price.