Bharti Enterprises, the holding company of the Bharti group of companies, and private equity major Warburg Pincus will spend $2 billion to jointly acquire a 49% stake in consumer appliance maker Haier India, two people with knowledge of the deal said.
Haier India's parent, the Chinese Haier Group, will retain the remaining 49% stake in the local unit.
The transaction will help Haier Group shed stake to comply with Indian investment rules for Chinese companies besides, as pointed out in a statement by the companies, boost its local manufacturing capacity in the country.
“Following the completion of the transaction, Bharti and Warburg Pincus will collectively own a 49% stake in Haier India. Haier Group will retain a 49% ownership stake in Haier India, with the remaining stake to be held by Haier India’s management team,” according to statement from the companies on Wednesday.
Warburg Pincus said in a response to Mint it was not sharing any more details than in the press statement. Emails sent to Bharti Enterprises and Haier for comments did not receive a response until press time.
The deal was necessitated by the need for Chinese companies to be compliant with India government's Press Note 3, sources had told Mint earlier. According to rules in the press note, an entity of a country sharing land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment is an entity of such country sharing border can invest only under government route or prior approval.
"Haier, being a Chinese business, needed a local partner to be in the India market as a long-term player," explained a person directly aware of the deal. “Bharti Enterprises and Warburg coming in to Haier adds a lot of legitimacy to its business operations in India and the firm believes the government will also look at it favourably.”
Bharti-owned telco, Bharti Airtel is India's third most valuable listed company by market capitalization.
For Chinese firms, there are very few opportunities in India to get a strategic partner in a financial investment capacity. "The last time we saw something this big happen was the MG-JSW deal," this person added. In March 2024, a clutch of Indian investors, led by billionaire Sajjan Jindal’s conglomerate, picked up 51% of MG Motor India to create JSW MG Motor India Pvt. Ltd. China’s SAIC Motor Corp. until then owned 100% in the maker of Hector and Windsor cars. Deal details were not disclosed then.
Plans ahead
Through this deal, Bharti Enterprises and Warburg Pincus plan to deepen local sourcing capabilities while expanding manufacturing capacities in the country in an effort to innovate products and boost market penetration of Haier India. “The new capital infusion will also enhance Haier India’s competitiveness across the entire value chain,” the companies said in the statement.
Established in 2003 in India, the ownership of Haier Appliances India Pvt. Ltd (Haier India), is routed through Haier Singapore Investment Holding Pte. Ltd, Mint reported earlier. It sells refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, LED TVs, water heaters, deep freezers, and microwave ovens to kitchen appliances in the country. It has two manufacturing facilities in Pune and Greater Noida. It is the third largest consumer durables maker in India after LG and Samsung.
Over the past seven years, Haier India has achieved a CAGR of approximately 25% in India, fueled by the performance across product segments of the brand and geographies.
Mint was the first to report in March 2025 that TPG had tied up with the Burman family, while GIC had teamed up with the Welspun Group's Goenka family for Haier's 49% slice, all while Warburg-Mittal and Bain-Dalmia were circling the Indian operations of Chinese durables maker.
Mittal through investment companies has shed "Bharti Airtel stake worth around $4 billion in the last 12 months, and has been using proceeds from the share sale to diversify his holdings,” a third person said on the condition of anonymity.
The majority of proceeds from the share sale in the Indian telco was put into acquiring part of the 24.5% stake in BT Group Plc, a telecom services player, a part of the funds will now be used to fund the Haier deal, this person added.
“This signals that Mittal is ready to enter a new space, that of consumer durables, and it remains to be seen if this will have a higher ROI for him than Bharti Airtel,” the person said.
Bharti Enterprises controls stakes in Bharti Airtel and infrastructure play Indus Towers Ltd in the telecom space. It also owns stake in Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co, Bharti Real Estate, and PizzaExpress operator Gourmet Investments Pvt. Ltd, besides others investments.