Jan-June PE investments hit record high of $11.34 bn: Report

Private equity firms have invested about USD 5.4 billion across 124 deals during June quarter, taking the total investments in first six months of this year to a record USD 11.34 billion, says a report.
According to data from Venture Intelligence, 124 deals worth USD 5.4 billion were sealed in April-June this year, while in the corresponding period last year, PE investments worth USD 3.3 billion were announced over 145 transactions.
The January-March quarter of this year had seen deals worth USD 5.9 billion across 148 transactions.
These figures take the total investments in the first six months of 2017 to a record USD 11.34 billion (as against USD 7.4 billion across 335 companies in the same period last year and the previous record high of USD 10 billion in the second half of 2007).

The report said this is the "third straight quarter of over USD five billion in PE investments - a new record again".
These figures include venture capital investments, but exclude PE investments in real estate.

"The most heartening factor about the record investment figures of 2017 is that it has been spread across a wide range of sectors," Venture Intelligence CEO Arun Natarajan said.
"While last year's favourites of Financial Services and Infrastructure sectors continue to attract mega dollars, big ticket investments in new age companies like Paytm - along with facilitating healthy exits for early investors - have provided re-assurance that the E-Commerce story in India is far from over," he said.

The largest investment reported during April-June quarter was that of USD 1.4 billion by SoftBank in One 97 Communications, the parent company of mobile payments service Paytm.
During the quarter, there were 10 PE investments worth USD 100 million.
"Canadian pension fund CPPIB as well as global PE firm Warburg Pincus were especially active during the period and joined SoftBank in the list of investors committing to invest over USD one billion in the first six months of 2017," the report said.
On the back of mega investments in companies like Paytm, Tata Technologies and Aegis BPO, IT & ITeS companies accounted for 49 per cent of the PE investment value pie in June quarter and attracted almost USD 2.6 billion across 68 transactions.

Led by the Warburg Pincus investment in ICICI Lombard, BFSI companies came in next attracting USD 689 million across 12 PE investments, followed by logistics companies which attracted USD 536 million across four transactions (led by CPPIB's USD 500 million investment in Indospace Core).