PE score in November: 56 deals & $2.9 billion investment

All major sectors -- real estate, e-commerce, IT, retail and consumer products, healthcare -- saw new all-time highs in value invested.

The month of November recorded the highest monthly value ever of exits by private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) entities, with 25 of these worth $2.7 billion.

The month also saw investments worth $2.9 billion by these entities, across 56 deals. Large value deals (over $100 million) are a highlight in 2017, according to consultancy EY’s monthly PE deal tracker.

The highest value of exits ever for any month was mainly due to one large open market one, Qatar Foundation Endowment selling five per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for $1.5 billion.

There were two PE-backed Initial Public Offers (IPOs) of equity in November.

Kedaara sold 13.6 per cent stake in Mahindra Logistics for $65 million and Reliance Alternative Investment Fund sold 33 per cent stake in Khadim for $68 million.

From a sector perspective, telecom topped in spite of only one deal, due to the $1.5-billion exit by Qatar Foundation Endowment.

Next was financial services, with four exits worth $650 million.

Vivek Soni, partner at EY, said as projected earlier, it was a stellar month for investments and exits; a similar story was expected in December.

In fact, 2017 has been the best year so far for Indian PE. The Indian market is now considered one of the most attractive of destinations for investment by global Limited Partners (LPs).

“In 2018, we project increased allocation/exposure to India by large global LP’s and expect continuation of the upward trajectory within both PE/VC investments and exits,” said Soni.

In all, the year so far saw 54 deals were recorded of value greater than $100 mn.

All major sectors -- real estate, e-commerce, information technology (IT), retail and consumer products (RCP), healthcare -- saw new all-time highs in value invested.

November recorded a 217 per cent increase in value of investments. In terms of volume, up 37 per cent from the same period last year ($2.9 billion across 56 deals versus $0.9 billion across 41 deals in November 2016).

Month on month, an increase of 40 per cent in value, while the number of deals remained the same.

This increase was driven significantly by a high number of large value deals.

The 10 with individual values greater than $100 million (highest for any month ever) aggregated $2.3 billion.

Large value deals are 54 deals so far, aggregating $18.2 billion, said Soni.

This is mainly due to increasing exposure of big pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and global buyout funds in India, which earlier preferred the LP route.

Reinforcing the growing interest in the investor community in Indian PE and their growing confidence to make larger bets, he added.

2017 has been the best year for financial services, with $5.8 billion across 95 deals, more than double the previous high of $2.5 billion across 72 deals for the whole of 2016.

Also, 2017 is turning out to be the best year in value terms for real estate, e-commerce, IT, RCP, and healthcare.

Photograph: Thomas White/Reuters.