India Inc strikes 360 private equity deals worth $8.9 billion in January-October

NEW DELHI: Indian companies signed as many as 360 private equity deals totaling $8.9 billion in the January-October period of this year, registering an increase of 33 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago.

According to a report by global assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, the total value of PE deals in the first 10 months of 2012, India Inc had announced 345 transactions worth $6.7 billion.

Moreover, private equity deal value increased by 14 per cent in October 2013 over the corresponding period a year ago driven by deals in real estate, IT/ITES and healthcare sectors and in the M&A space, October 2013 saw another large outbound deal in oil and gas space.

"There seems to be a pick-up in deal due diligence activity (especially, inbound deals) but deals are taking longer time to close," Grant Thornton in India Partner, Transaction Advisory Services Raja Lahiri said.

Government regulations relaxing FDI norms in sectors like retail, media and insurance as well as the recently proposed M&A policies for telecom sector, is good for the deal making environment, Lahiri added.

Red Fort Capital's $161 million investment in Lotus Greens Developers was termed as the PE deal of the month (October) and the top five deals accounted for 63 per cent of the total PE deal values.

The other major deals include, e-commerce major Flipkart receiving additional $160 million from Morgan Stanley Investment Management and others, followed by American PE fund KKR investing Rs 550 crore in PCR, the holding company for the Apollo Hospitals Group.

Others major deals that make up the top five deals in October include Warburg Pincus' 30 per cent stake acquisition in Biba Apparels for $56.45 million and Actis $48 million investment in Symbiotec Pharmalab.

A sector wise analysis shows IT and ITeS space cornered 34 per cent of the total deals as the sector saw 18 deals worth $281 million, followed by pharma, healthcare (26 per cent with $216 million), real estate (22 per cent, $177 million), retail (7 per cent, $56 million) and media and entertainment (4 per cent, $30 million), the report said.