Private equity and venture capital investments slip 27 per cent in Oct to $1.19 billion: EY

NEW DELHI: Private equity and venture capital investments declined 27 per cent to $1.19 billion in October due to decline in big ticket transactions, says a report.

PE/VC transactions worth $1.63 billion had been announced in October last year, said the EY report.

On month-on-month basis, there was a marginal increase of 5.3 per cent in value terms in October this year.

"PE/VC investment activity improved marginally in October 2016 but was the strongest since May this year. Also, encouraging was the rebound in VC/early stage deal volumes with 30 deals recorded in October 2016," said Mayank Rastogi, Partner and Leader for PE, EY.

Rastogi noted that buyouts as a theme is finally starting to play out and that is leading to robust investment numbers.

Argand Capital's buyout of Sigma Electric for $250 million from Goldman Sachs, CDPQ's $155 million investment in TVS Logistics providing exit to KKR and Goldman Sachs, and Everstone Capital's buyout of C3 (Customer Contact Channels) Inc for $150 million in partnership with Sunrise BPOwere the top three deals in October 2016.

From a sector perspective, Industrial Products ($253 million, three deals) and logistics ($179 million, three deals) emerged as leading contributors to the aggregate deal value for the month.

Regarding the exits, October recorded $765 million across 16 deals. This was mainly on account of two large transactions -- Goldman Sachs' exit from Sigma Electric for $225 million and HDFC Property Fund's exit from World One, a luxury residential project by Lodha Group in Mumbai.

There was one PE backed IPO in October this year where Actis exited its 13.7 per cent stake in Endurance Technologies for $135 million, EY said.