{"id":79657,"date":"2026-10-19T15:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/10\/19\/fairfaxs-watsa-bets-on-idbi-payoff-as-india-booms-report-says\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T15:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:32:26","slug":"fairfaxs-watsa-bets-on-idbi-payoff-as-india-booms-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/10\/19\/fairfaxs-watsa-bets-on-idbi-payoff-as-india-booms-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairfax\u2019s Watsa bets on IDBI payoff as India booms, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><\/p>\n<p> Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa is betting that his Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. \u2019s acquisition of IDBI Bank Ltd. will pay off given India\u2019s growth prospects, the Economic Times reported. <\/p>\n<p> Known for his value-investing approach of taking long-term positions in companies with scope for growth and transformation, Watsa told the newspaper that India\u2019s prime minister is going to make the country \u201cmore business friendly.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> \u201cYou\u2019re going to get an economic boom in India for the next 10 years, I think, of very significant proportions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p> Fairfax\u2019s buyout of a 60.7 per cent stake in IDBI Bank earlier this week underscores growing interest in India\u2019s financial sector, as overseas investors seek to tap growth in one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing major economies. The transaction is among the country\u2019s biggest financial-sector deals. <\/p>\n<p> The buyout significantly expands Fairfax\u2019s presence in India, where it already has investments in CSB Bank Ltd. and IIFL Capital Services Ltd. <\/p>\n<p> IDBI Bank, once burdened by heavy bad loans, has emerged from a major cleanup, returning to profitability in recent years after capital support and aggressive recoveries helped it cut non-performing assets sharply. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>This TSX stock could see nearly 32% upside after a huge India deal, analyst says<\/li>\n<li>Fairfax&#8217;s deal for IDBI includes no major investment banks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> Fairfax focused on the lender\u2019s potential as it has not expanded because of its problems, Watsa told the newspaper. \u201cWe\u2019re always going to keep it financially sound,\u201d with an aim to ensure the fiscal integrity of the bank and the welfare of its employees, he said. <\/p>\n<p> Bloomberg.com <\/p>\n\n<br \/>Fairfax\u2019s Watsa bets on IDBI payoff as India booms, report says<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-10-19 15:32:26<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa is betting that his Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. \u2019s acquisition of IDBI Bank Ltd. will pay off given India\u2019s growth prospects, the Economic Times reported. Known&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}