At Kotak Private’s Take and Counter Take (TACT), Renuka Ramnath argues that private markets are no longer a niche allocation. As the asset class matures, investors may need to rethink not just where returns come from, but how wealth itself is built and managed.
BENGALURU | 30th SEPTEMBER 2026 | As private markets mature and evolve in India, investors are looking to rebalance their portfolios in line with rising expectations of returns from new opportunities. Speaking on the theme, “Is the future of wealth creation shifting from public markets to private markets?”, at Kotak Private Banking’s Take and Counter Take (TACT), an invitation-only thought leadership platform, Multiples Alternate Asset Management Founder, Managing Director and CEO, Renuka Ramnath suggested that sophisticated investors could gradually evolve towards a portfolio where private assets account for as much as 30% of their overall equity allocation.
“When you’re making the transition from 100% public markets to some in private market, you could go up to even 30% in private market,” Ramnath said. “If 100% was public, you could have the overall equity split as 70:30.”
Her argument was not that private markets would replace public markets. Rather, she said the two should coexist within a portfolio, based on an investor’s risk appetite, return expectations and liquidity requirements. Private markets, she added, have evolved from an emerging product into a mature asset class offering a range of managers and investment strategies. “Time has come to add alternate asset to that portfolio,” she said, advocating a measured and gradual approach to building the allocation.
‘A Private Equity Investor Is A Real Partner In Business’
Ramnath argued that private equity returns do not come merely from identifying promising companies and waiting for their value to appreciate. Private equity managers work alongside founders to shape strategy, strengthen management teams, establish governance frameworks, develop an appropriate capital structure and calibrate the risks being taken by the business.
“We work hand in hand with them. We develop strategies together, we co-build the company by encouraging our entrepreneurs to make more ambitious plans, by showing horizons that by themselves they may have feared to see or not had the financial capacity and all the other capacity to really go and harvest,” she said.
This active involvement, she argued, is what differentiates private equity from passive capital provision. “A private equity investor is not an observant investor. He’s a real partner in the business,” Ramnath said. The incremental return comes from combining company-building with measured risk-taking, including helping businesses navigate unexpected internal or external shocks.
The risk of illiquidity while investing in private markets
Ramnath also challenged one of the most frequently cited concerns surrounding private markets: the inability to exit an investment quickly. While illiquidity must be considered as part of portfolio construction, she argued that investors often overestimate how much liquidity they actually require.
Instead, she urged investors to focus more closely on manager selection, governance, portfolio diversification, risk management and capital allocation. “Nobody needs the amount of liquidity that they imagine they need,” Ramnath said.
Her broader message was that private assets should not be treated as a speculative side bet or a response to market trends. They should be incorporated gradually into a long-term portfolio strategy, with the right manager playing as important a role as the asset class itself.
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