JPMORGAN Chase & Co, the third-largest United States bank, plans to double private equity investments in India to US$1 billion as the nation's equities head for the worst year on record.

The bank will also invest about US$500 million to build its corporate finance and advisory operations, Kalpana Morparia, who took over as chief executive officer of JPMorgan in India on August 28, said in an interview in her Mumbai office on Wednesday.

Private equity investments in India climbed 3.2 percent in the first six months of the year, bucking a 23-percent decline for all of Asia, according to Bloomberg News.

JPMorgan, which acquired Bear Stearns Cos in March in a bailout orchestrated by the Federal Reserve, has recorded about a quarter of the losses posted by Citigroup Inc, its bigger rival, after the US home loan market collapsed.

"Just given the state of public markets, there are opportunities for placements," Morparia said. " When public markets don't open up, they do placements."

Billionaire Anil Ambani and Dubai developer Emaar Properties PJSC were forced to cancel initial shares sales in India this year as the Sensitive Index slumped 33 percent.

Private equity investments in India climbed to almost US$6.8 billion in the first half, surpassing the US$5.8 billion invested in China, as new investments in Asia fell 23 percent to US$32.4 billion, according to the Hong Kong-based Asian Venture Capital Journal.

Private equity investment in India in the first eight months of this year is US$8.6 billion, from US$8.4 billion a year earlier, according to Venture Intelligence Ltd, a company that tracks private investments.

JPMorgan's private equity unit has so far invested in L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd, Apollo Hospitals & Enterprises Ltd and Cafe Coffee Day, among others, according to Venture Intelligence Ltd, a Chennai, India-based company that tracks investments.