Rich Indians snapping up assets in Australia

Rich Indians snapping up assets in AustraliaRich Indians are quietly snapping up Australian assets, as Australia is attracting long-term investment and wealthy Indians are seeing it as a safe-haven.

The Jindal family, one of the richest corporate families in India, acquired stakes in Australian iron ore and coal mines via Jindal Steel & Power. The stakes, acquired in May this year, worth a total of A$26 million (US$26.99M).

Earlier, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani acquired a coal mine in the Australian state of Queensland for US$2 billion.

Silverneedle Hospitality, a company backed by Infosys co-founder Nadathur S. Raghavan, has just acquired a Brisbane-based hotel for A$57 million. It was Silverneedle's second major purchase in Australia. Last year, this Indian company had acquired a chain of around sixty hotels spread across Australia and New Zealand for an unrevealed sum.

Paul Dowling, principal analyst at East & Partners, said, "In the last six to nine months, there has been a lot of private investment into Australia because it is seen as a safe-haven."

Dowling added that while rich Indians had traditionally preferred North America and the UK for making offshore investments, now they were focusing on Australian real estate.