Alta Capital looking to invest over $1 billion in India's educational infra

Investment and asset management firm Alta Capital is looking to invest more than $1 billion in top cities across India over the next 3-4 years as it sharpens its focus on the country's rapidly growing educational infrastructure, said a top company official.

The firm has already invested over $1 billion across warehousing, managed workspaces, student housing and educational infrastructure businesses in less than a year of operations till December, which also marked its purchase of education infrastructure development services company Cappella Educore for $200 million. Alta Capital had earlier acquired Goldman Sachs' and Warburg Pincus' 100% stake in student housing platform Good Host Spaces for $320 million in the largest-ever student housing deal in the country.

"We are planning to invest $1 billion in India's burgeoning education infrastructure sector in the next 3-4 years. The market for quality education is worth $16 billion in India and is growing at 10% annually given the importance attached to education and skill development. This speaks volumes about the market size and need for private capital to shape the future of education," Siddhartha Gupta, founder and managing partner, Alta Capital, told ET.

There is a renewed interest in investing in the Indian educational sector. With a rising population and growing demand for quality education, both private and institutional investors are flocking to capitalise on this lucrative sector. Government initiatives to promote education and skill development have further fuelled the attractiveness of investing in educational infrastructure.

Alta Capital will use the Good Host Spaces' platform to acquire new educational infrastructure assets with its planned investment. The investment will be made through global private equity firm Hillhouse Investments' subsidiary Rava Partners that raised a more than $2.7 billion fund in 2023 to invest in real estate assets in Asia.

Founded by Gupta, former MD of Blackstone India, Alta Cap is the sole operating partner of Rava in India.

The firm's current asset portfolio in educational infrastructure spans six major Indian cities with over 5 million sq ft covering 45,000 students. Of this, Cappella has 13 schools in Bangalore and Hyderabad with 2 million sq ft assets with 25,000 students. Good Host Spaces has 3 million sq ft with 20,000 beds across four universities.

"One out of every five students going to school is an Indian in the current scenario. Around 500 million students are seeking educational support and of which, 300 million are receiving the same. Out of this, less than 1% or 2.5 million is our target market who seek quality education in private schools," Gupta said, highlighting the market potential.

Apart from focusing on educational infrastructure, Alta Capital will also continue to support its existing investment themes including warehousing and managed workspaces, he added.

It has so far invested $200 million in Pragati Warehousing and $325 million in managed workspace provider Table Space in addition to its acquisitions of Good Host Spaces and Cappella Educore.