Private equity firms in India invested approximately $763 million across 47 deals during the third quarter of 2009, according to data from Venture Intelligence, an India-focused private equity research service.
In terms of amount invested, this was a significant decline of about 70 percent from the same period last year and a 21 percent fall from the second quarter of this year. There were 132 deals done in Q3 2008 and 47 deals done between April and June this year.
Of the total $763 million invested, some $255 million was accounted for by the investment in communications software firm Aricent by KKR and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the study noted.
The information technology and IT-enabled services sector was India’s most popular sector in the quarter just gone, accounting for a quarter of the 47 deals done. The second most popular sector was the banking, financial services and insurance sector with 17 percent. Shipping and logistics, healthcare and life sciences and manufacturing sectors each accounted for 11 percent of the deals done between July and September, the data showed.
“Education and logistics services stand out among the sectors that continue to witness quarter-on-quarter growth in investor interest,” Arun Natarajam, Venture Intelligence’s chief executive, said in a statement.
A total of about $2.4 billion was invested in the first nine months of this year across 140 deals. This pales in comparison with the roughly $9.5 billion invested across 365 deals in the same period last year.
Indian private equity deal values slump in third quarter
Although the period saw the same number of deals transacted as the second quarter, the amount invested declined by 21% - with KKR's Aricent deal accounting for a third of the total.