'PEs to make big investments in emerging sectors in 5 yrs'

Most investments in emerging sectors like health care, education and clean energy will come from private equity funds in the next five years, a study has said.

About 80 per cent investments in health care, education and clean energy by 2015 are likely to be constituted by PE funds since these are the emerging sectors, according to a joint study released by Assocham and Deloitte.

"The government has been laying substantial focus on building these sectors through public-private-partnership projects aimed at developing these areas," Assocham President Swati Piramal said.

In 2009, PE investment in health sector was to the tune of $148 million and is expected to increase substantially in the next few years.

"Within health care, the most favoured areas for investments are diagnostic services, medical devices, hospital chains and wellness products," the study said.

Currently, the size of the Indian education sector is estimated at $40 billion. It is expected to touch the $68-billion mark in the next three years, of which private equity investments would be more than three-fourth.

In the area of clean energy, there is a steady increase in the number of market players, therefore, investments are expected to be more broad-based.

Besides renewable energy generation, areas including waste water, waste management, energy infrastructure and energy efficiency would also attract private equity investments.