'Mega deals power PE investments in 2017 to all-time high'

New Delhi: Private equity investments have hit an all-time high this year with deals worth of USD 17.6 billion in the first nine months, largely driven by big-ticket transactions, says a report.

According to Venture Intelligence data, private equity firms invested about USD 17.6 billion in Indian companies in first nine months of 2017, sailing past the previous high of USD 17.3 billion in 2015.

The year has already recorded as many as 21 investments over USD 200 million in size, in addition to 15 deals between USD 100-200 million, the report said.

The mega deals have been dominated by four sectors -- Internet and mobile; infrastructure; IT services and BPO and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance).

SoftBank's mega bets on Internet and mobile companies account for 24 per cent of the total investment pie. According to the report, over USD 4 billion of investment value -- 24 per cent of the total -- has been committed by Japan-based SoftBank.

Its investments included USD 250 million in budget hotel aggregator Oyo, USD 1.4 billion in mobile wallet leader Paytm and USD 2.5 billion in e-commerce leader Flipkart.

The report further said PE firms invested about USD 5.7 billion across 106 deals during July-September 2017, second highest after the March quarter that saw USD 6.4 billion investment across 163 transactions.

The September quarter recorded as many as 13 investments above USD 100 million compared to 10 in the same period last year. SoftBank's USD 2.5 billion investment in Flipkart was the largest during the September quarter, the next three being accounted for by BFSI companies.

Some of the major PE transactions in July-September were Carlyle's USD 300 million in SBI Cards; the USD 260 million raised by RBL Bank and the USD 240 million buyout of investor services firm Karvy Computershare by General Atlantic.