New Delhi, Nov 14 (PTI) Private equity investorsannounced transactions of USD 16.40 billion for January-October, a 55 per cent jump over the year-ago period, drivenby big-ticket deals, says a report.
For October alone, the deal value read USD 1.6 billion.
According to assurance, tax and advisory firm GrantThornton's latest Dealtracker, January-October saw 624 PEdeals worth of USD 16.40 billion, but the number oftransactions declined by 25 per cent, indicating an increasein average deal size.
January-October this year saw 3 deals in the billion-dollar category and 31 deals valued at and above USD 100million as against 1 and 23, respectively, in the same periodlast year.
However, PE investments witnessed a declining trend inOctober this year as against the year-ago period, both interms of deal value (down 22 per cent) and number oftransactions (a fall of 39 per cent).
The declining deal trend last month was primarily due toabsence of large funding rounds compared to October 2016,which saw 7 deals valued over USD 50 million as against only 3such deals in October this year, the report said.
From a sectoral perspective, e-commerce still rules theroost, with USD 1.2 billion of the total deal value, whilestartups still continue to draw investors' attention with 65per cent of deal volumes, the report said.
E-commerce sector contributed 74 per cent of investmentvalue, driven by Tencent Holdings and SoftBank's investment ofUSD 1,100 million in Olacabs, which marks the second-largestinvestment in the e-commerce space after Flipkart in thecurrent year.
Going forward, Grant Thornton India LLP Partner PrashantMehra said that "with India moving up by 30 positions in WorldBank's Ease of Doing Business rankings, and various reformsfinally showing a positive impact on the economy and the stockmarket, transactions should now start to inch upwards". PTIDRRARD.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.