Private equity (PE) companies invested $2,249 million across 98 deals during the quarter ended September. This was less than the $2,357 million invested across 111 deals in the same period last year and the $2,911 million invested across 122 deals in the immediate previous quarter.
The total PE investments in the first nine months touched $8,570 million (across 317 transactions), significantly higher than the $6,400 million investments (across 270 transactions) in the same period last year. Also, the value of PE investments in the year-to-date has already surpassed the $8,256 million invested (across 358 transactions) in 2010, according to a study by Venture Intelligence. All these figures did not include PE investments in the real estate.
There were five investments worth over $100 million during the third quarter, with three of them over $200 million. Some of the largest investments included the Blackstone Group-owned Sithe Global Power’s $261-million investment in SKS Chhattisgarh Power Generation; Blackstone’s Rs 500-crore ($111-million) investment in Visa Power, and Goldman Sachs’ Rs 1,000-crore ($204-million) commitment to ReNew Wind Power.
Powered by these mega deals, the energy industry emerged as the favourite destination for PE capital (in terms of investment amount), attracting $823 million across 16 transactions. The information technology (IT)and IT-enabled services providers came in next, attracting $437 million across 29 transactions. The largest deal in the sector was SoftBank’s $200-million investment in mobile advertising network InMobi.
