Blackstone to Take About 16% of India's IIFL Finance in Rs 5,000 Crore Deal, After Leading $3.1B LNG Canada Investment

BX is set to take a stake of about 16% in Indian non-bank lender IIFL Finance after the company's board on November 10 approved a Rs 6,414 crore preferential issue. Bloomberg's report put the stake at 15.5% for $532 million, while Indian outlets including Business Today reported about 16%. Blackstone Private Equity will invest Rs 5,000 crore, about $535 million, through compulsorily convertible preference shares that convert into equity at Rs 602 apiece within 18 months, according to Upstox and Retail Banker International. Promoters Nirmal Jain and R Venkataraman are adding Rs 1,264 crore through warrants and Anchorage Capital Rs 150 crore. The money is new capital for IIFL rather than a purchase from an existing holder, and the deal still needs shareholder and regulatory approvals. IIFL said the raise lifts its capital adequacy from 17% to about 30%, and its shares rallied as much as 10.7% to Rs 694.40 on November 11.

The India deal lands about a week after a separate energy-infrastructure bet. On November 2, a Blackstone-led group including CPP Investments, OMERS, IMCO and PSP Investments agreed to a $3.1 billion deal for a 49.9% non-controlling interest in the Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary that holds Mitsubishi's 15% stake in LNG Canada. Mitsubishi remains the controlling partner and keeps its full share of the plant's LNG supply, and the project's Phase 2 expansion, approved in September, is set to double capacity to 28 million tonnes a year, per The Canadian Press.

Taken together, the two transactions show Blackstone's credit and private equity arms deploying capital into structured minority positions, one in long-dated North American gas infrastructure and one in a fast-growing Indian lender. For IIFL, the next milestones are the shareholder vote and regulatory clearance; for Blackstone, the deals add to a pipeline of infrastructure and private-credit investments that underpin its fee-earning asset growth.