Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments witnessed a decline during the first half of this year, driven by a slowdown in e-commerce, early stage investments and a lack of big deals, says an EY report. During the January-June, there were PE, VC investments worth $7.6 billion, registering a decline of 11 per cent in value terms when deals worth $8.5 billion were announced.
Sovereign wealth & buyout funds step up activity even, as mega deals dry up for internet & mobile firms
Three top executives quit transnationals recently to head PE-led buyout firms; trend is expected to increase
According to PwC, during January-April 2016, early stage PE investments saw a decline of 57% in value terms and 25% in volume terms
According to the assurance, tax and advisory firm there were 63 PE deals worth $1.89 billion last month while in April last year 89 such transactions worth $1.99 billion were seen
According to the report by property consultant Cushman & Wakefield, PE inflow was seen across asset classes
The report said that 2015 is the best year for PE inflow.
Private equity (PE) firms have stayed away from investing in shipping, ports and logistics for two years in a row. This shows they don't believe the fortunes will change much from the current grim situation."PEs have stopped coming into the sector and there is no easy money for the shipping business," G Shivakumar, chief financial officer at Great Eastern Shipping, said in the third quarter earnings conference call. The company, like its peers, has given a negative outlook for the dry bulk trade division and did not provide valuations for the offshore business.The recent move by shipping and logistics company, Mercator, also speaks volumes about the grim situation. Mercator not only decided to exit the weak dry bulk business held via its Singapore subsidiary but also sold it to three PE companies for a token amount of three Singaporean dollars. The dry bulk trade across globe has virtually come to a standstill. This is evident from the level of Baltic Dry Index (BDI), the benchmark for