Warburg Pincus CEO Jeffrey Perlman said Japan is undergoing structural change and has become more friendly to global private equity firms. According to Sina Finance, he said companies no longer view private equity as a one-time adversary, but as a partner, and added that this is where the firm’s value-creation strategy can help companies grow.

Perlman said large-scale mergers and acquisitions are crowded, so Warburg Pincus is focusing on the mid-market, where competitive pressure is lower. He said the firm earlier this year launched a 190 billion yen tender offer for JSB Co., a Japanese student housing operator, which would be its first privatization deal in Japan.

He also said Japan has thousands of listed companies, many of them conglomerates with numerous non-core businesses that can be streamlined or spun off, offering abundant targets for private equity investors. Perlman added that mid-market valuations remain attractive and that the firm is also watching investment opportunities created by business spin-offs.

Perlman said Indian companies also remain attractive for investment, and the firm will continue increasing capital deployment there.