Private equity firms invested a record $9.2 billion across 154 deals during July-September 2018 quarter (calender Q3, 2018) — up 60% compared to the $5.8 billion across 146 transactions in the same period last year, data from Venture Intelligence shows.
The investment amount in Q3 of 2018 was 11% higher than the immediate previous quarter which had recorded the previous highest quarterly investments at $8.3 billion across 191 transactions.
Mega sized PE investments in the July-September quarter have catapulted 2018 into the biggest year for PE investments in India, with the nine month total already matching the previous 12-month high recorded in 2017.
According to Venture Intelligence data, the total PE investments in the first nine months of 2018 touched $23.7 billion across 525 deals — up 29% compared to the first nine months of 2017 across 527 transactions. Calendar 2017 was the biggest ever year for PE investments in India, recording $23.7 billion across 704 deals.
The latest quarter witnessed 22 PE investments worth $100 million or more, accounting for 79% of the total investment value during the period, compared to 13 such transactions in Q3’17. Of these, 12 were larger than $200 million each (by themselves accounting for 65% of the total value) — compared to just four such investments in the year ago period, the Venture Intelligence data shows.
“International investor interest in Indian internet & mobile companies has shot up dramatically post the Walmart-Flipkart deal,” said Arun Natarajan, founder of Venture Intelligence. “At the same time, it is gratifying that investments in other industries — including in manufacturing, energy and engineering companies — is also quite strong.
This lends confidence that 2018 will set a significantly new high for PE investments in the country, even if the nervousness in the public markets and global events begin to affect private markets in Q4,” he added.
