Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private equity (PE) deal volumes increased 11% in October compared to the same period last year while deal values recorded a marginal increase of 3%, a Grant Thornton report released on Monday stated.
October reported 103 M&A and PE transactions with a reported value of $5.5 billion. In value terms, M&A transactions witnessed a decline by about $1.1 billion, which was set off by $1.2 billion increase in PE transaction values.
PE transactions for October soared to $2.8 billion from $1.6 billion in October 2017, although transaction volumes remained muted at around 57-58 deals. Couple of large ticket transactions in the hospitality and leisure sectors and start-ups catering to these sectors have been the deal value drivers, according to the report.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been deals worth $97 billion across 1,089 M&A and PE transactions, the report said.
“There were 679 PE investments recorded valued at $17.4 billion, which estimates to a sturdy 11% increase in the deal volumes. However, PEs remained cautioned on making big ticket investments with muted deal values compared to year-to-date (YTD) 2017,” the report said.
Exhibiting the trend of the last four years, the month was dominated by investments in start-ups, which accounted for 57% of the total investment volumes.
The sector also saw Oyo Rooms entering the unicorn club with $1 billion funding, which includes a commitment of an additional $200 million. As per the transaction, existing investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners have put in $800 million, with commitments for another $200 million, the report stated.
Due to strong growth and favourable policy support, the energy sector recorded two deals this month, one in the CleanTech space and the other in the power segment. This trend is expected to grow in the coming months.
Continuing the momentum, core sectors like hospitality, real estate, banking, infra and energy attracted big ticket investments over $100 million each, the report said.
Source: Financial Express