Private equity firms invested about $5.44 billion across 117 deals during the quarter ended March 2017, 36 per cent higher than the year ago period even as the number of transactions declined, according to data released by Chennai-based Venture Intelligence, which tracks PE and venture capital investments.
Private equity investments in the first quarter of this year rose 36 per cent on a year-on-year basis and 23 per cent over the previous quarter (October- December 2016), it said.
"Interestingly, almost $3.6 billion, or 2/3rds of the total value of the investments during the period, were announced/reported in just March," noted Arun Natarajan, CEO of Venture Intelligence.
The surge in deal value was driven by big ticket deals. The latest quarter witnessed 11 PE investments worth $100 million or more compared to 12 such transactions in the same period last year and eight during the immediate previous quarter. Many of the larger deals during January-March this year involved secondary sales by either promoters or existing PE investors, the report noted.
Telecom tower firm Bharti Infratel saw parent firm Bharti AirtelBSE -2.37 % sell a 10.3 per cent stake to KKR and Canadian pension fund CPPIB for almost $952 million.
CPPIB also invested $720 million in IT services firm GlobalLogic, providing an exit route for existing PE investor Apax Partners. True North (formerly India Value Fund) exited one hospital chain (Manipal Health via a $215 million sale to Temasek) and entered a new one (KIMS Group via a $200 million investment that gave ..
Internet and Mobile sector unicorns Flipkart and Ola are back in fund raising mode in 2017 - however at significantly lower valuation than what they had attracted in 2015. While Flipkart is reported to have attracted $1 billion in commitment as part of an ongoing $1.5 billion round from China’s Tencent and others, Ola is reported to have received commitments of $330 million led by SoftBank and other existing investors.
Sector-wise, IT and ITES companies accounted for 53 per cent of the PE investment value pie in January-March quarter of this year, attracting almost $2.9 billion across 64 deals.
Meanwhile, BFSI companies attracted $498 million across 17 PE investments, followed closely by healthcare and life sciences companies which attracted $496 million across eight transactions, the report added.
VC investment fallsAt 68 investments worth $314 million, VC investment activity in the March quarter fell to a three-year low. The previous low in terms of the number of VC investments was 63 in the second quarter of 2014.
The VC investment amount in Q1’17 dipped 17 per cent compared to Q1 ‘16 and 26 per % compared to the immediate previous quarter. The fall in investment value was cushioned by a few large Growth Stage investments.
