PE deals worth nearly $2 bn sealed in April: Thornton

Most of the transactions happened in the e-commerce space

Private equity deals worth nearly $2 billion were sealed in April this year, registering a jump of nearly three-fold over the same month last year, largely driven by transactions in e-commerce space, says a Grant Thornton report.

According to the assurance, tax and advisory firm, PE investment activity during April witnessed 71 per cent increase in terms of number of transactions and 194 per cent rise in value terms as compared to the previous period.

"PE deal value stood at around $2 billion across 90 deals, which is a significant surge from April 2014, with a value growth of almost three times and volume growth of over 70 per cent," Grant Thornton India Partner Prashant Mehra said.

Going ahead, the coming months are expected to be "exciting".

According to Mehra, though there is a need to push things on the ground overall as the macro level indicators look positive. "The few months will hopefully be exciting for M&A and PE deals," he added.

Between January-April period, PE investments witnessed a quantum leap both in terms of volume and value at $4.6 billion through 308 deals, against $2.6 billion (by way of 183 deals) during January-April 2014.

E-commerce deals were the flavour of the month as this sector contributed more than half of total PE deal values and volumes during April.

In one such investment, app-based taxi aggregator Ola raised $400 million from a group of investors, led by DST Global.

The month also saw big ticket investments from global PE players into consumer goods sector, led by private equity investors Advent International and Temasek, who bought 34 per cent stake in the demerged consumer products business of Crompton Greaves for $316 million.

Other top PE deals of the month include JP Morgan Asset Management's acquisition of Canaan Partners-portfolio in India for $200 million, Temasek's 4 per cent stake buy in Glenmark Pharma for $151 million.

A sector-wise analysis shows that the IT-ITeS space attracted 53 transactions worth $1,034 million, followed by the pharma sector (7 deals worth $177 million), education (6 deals worth $21 million), banking & financial Services (4 deals worth $225 million) and real estate (3 deals worth $116 million), the report added.