Warren Buffett has praised the “incredible” potential in India but he’s still not ready to invest there due to excessive red tape.
The Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) CEO told Indian news network ET Now in an interview that even the country’s “enormous market” of 1.3 billion people is made unattractive by burdensome overregulation, CNN Money reports.
Major companies in Buffett’s portfolio such as Walmart (WMT) and Apple (AAPL) have failed to opens stores in India due to the amount of regulatory hurdles in their way, he said.
Complaining that foreign firms are barred from fully owning companies in India, Buffett said, “We would like to own 100% of any business that we run.”
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Masayoshi Son, founder and chairman of Japan’s SoftBank (SFTBY) has also called India the “land of golden opportunity.”
After striking gold with its early support of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA), Softbank is now betting billions on Indian e-commerce firms in a bid to “create one or two Alibabas” in India as well.
