April witnessed the highest number of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) deals ever for any month, with 102 deals worth $4.4 billion clocking a 79% year-on-year growth in deal value, according to EY’s Private Equity Monthly Deal Tracker.
These included 66 startup deals, which were also the highest ever for any month, according to the deal tracker.
The dollar value of the deals in April was, however, the third highest in the past one year. It was 41% lower than that of March and also lower than that of May 2018.
The $4.4 billion worth of deals in April came on the back of 11 large transactions of more than $100 million each, which aggregated to $2.9 billion, compared to eight large deals worth $1.9 billion in April 2018.
Most deal activity was seen in the infrastructure sector, which for the second consecutive month saw investment inflow of $1 billion. This came on the back of the $929 million deal in which GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd agreed to offer a 49% stake in GVK Airport Holdings Ltd to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. The deal makes this year the best for investments in the infrastructure sector, as investments grew 64% to $3.7 billion in January-April 2019, compared to the previous high recorded 12 years ago. Financial services was the second most preferred sector in April with $746 million in investments.
“With eight more months to go and some large deals in the pipeline, we project 2019 to be a landmark year for PE/VC investments in the Indian infrastructure sector,” said Vivek Soni, partner and national leader, private equity services, EY.
April also saw exits cross $1 billion for the first time in the past six months, largely due to a rebound in exits through the open market worth $715 million, the highest since November 2017. There were 16 exits in April worth $1.6 billion, almost on par with the year ago period
Source: Mint