Fairfax to invest $5 billion more in India in next 5 years

NEW DELHI: Billionaire investor Prem Watsa proposes to invest another $5 billion in India in the next five years, doubling what he’s put in thus far, and says the country offers an “unusual opportunity,” while shrugging off slowdown worries.

Hyderabad-born Watsa, often described as Canada’s Warren Buffett, said his company has invested $5 billion in the country in the past five years. He was in India for less than a day to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I think this is the number one country in the world,” the chairman of the $70-billion Toronto-headquartered Fairfax Financial Holdings told ET in an interview on Thursday. “India contributes nearly 3% of the world’s GDP but has only a 1% share of global investment money. If this figure were to just double to 2%, that would mean nearly $3 trillion of investments flowing into India.”