Private equity investments surge to all-time high of $37 bn in 2019

2019 emerged as a favourable year for Private Equity (PE) investments in India touching $37 billion as against $36.16 billion in 2018. According to data from Venture Intelligence, the gains were led by big-ticket Infrastructure sector deals. 

Arun Natarajan, Founder, Venture Intelligence said, “The fact that the PE investment tally of 2019 outdid the previous high of 2018 - despite uncertainties on the Economic, Political and Global Trade fronts - is very encouraging.”

The data shows that the 74 PE investments were pegged at and above $100 million accounting for 74 per cent of the total investments which included five investments worth $1 billion. The infrastructure industry took the large share of the pie with 40 per cent of the investments attracting $14.7 billion with 74 deals, compared to $7.8 billion in the preceding year. 

Meanwhile, the energy industry led by Brookfield's $1.9 Billion investment in Reliance Pipeline Infra also saw a growth in investments taking the share to $4.9 billion as against $3.2 billion in 2018. The RIL-Brookfield partnership further extended into telecom, with the Canadian investor agreeing to push about $3.7 billion in an SPV that will acquire a controlling stake in Jio's tower infrastructure company.

IT companies also saw an appreciation in investments with PayTM raking $1 billion by US-based T Rowe Price. The industry received 32 per cent of the total PE investments in the year passing by as nine new unicorn companies were raised, which include Delhivery, Dream11, BigBasket, Rivigo, Druva Software, Icertis, Citius Tech, Ola Electric, and Lenskart. 

"The sheer diversity of investors that are now actively investing in India – by geography (including North America, Asia, and the Middle East) as well as sector preferences - provides scope for optimism that the momentum will be maintained into the New Year,” Natarajan,  added.