E-commerce deals drive PE investments in April: Grant Thornton
- Livemint" target="_blank">Livemint
- May 18, 2015
Mumbai: The number of private equity (PE) deals increased 71% last month and their value almost tripled from a year ago, driven by the e-commerce sector, according to the monthly Grant Thornton India Llp deal tracker.
PE investments in April increased to $1.9 billion across 89 transactions from $676 million across 52 in the same month a year ago.
Year-to-date, PE invesments have surged to$ 4.6 billion across 308 deals from $2.6 billion across 183 deals a year ago.
On the PE front, the month witnessed continued interest in information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (e-commerce & IT solutions), which contributed more than half of the total PE deal value, said the report. IT &ITeS also led the deal volume, accounting for 60% of the deals
Manufacturing (16%), banking and financial Services (11%) and pharma, healthcare and biotech (9%) were also significant contributors to the value of deals, the report said
The largest PE deal in April was a $400 million fundraising by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, operator of Ola cabs, which raised capital from investors such as DST Global, Accel Partners, Tiger Global and Steadview Capital.
While PE deals rose, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity was muted. There was an 83% fall in deal value in April although deal volume increased by 21%.
“In terms of sector spread, the IT and ITeS and pharma sectors emerged as favourites for M&A, contributing 65% in total deal values but the manufacturing sector with its contribution of 19% was a welcome arrival in the sector leads,” said Prashant Mehra, partner at Grant Thornton India, adding that a similar trend was observed in PE deals with manufacturing and financial services firms seeing traction in fundraising.
The top M&A deal in April was the $187 million acquisition of Maithan Ispat Ltd by MESCO Steel Pvt. Ltd.
The month also saw two qualified institutional placements (QIPs) worth $145 million and five initial public offers worth almost $118 million, the report said.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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