The amount of money invested or committed by private equity firms in India reached an all time high in the first nine months of this year, said Venture Intelligence, a research firm tracking unlisted company financials, transactions and valuations.

PE firms invested about $17.6 billion in Indian companies as of September, overtaking the previous record of $17.3 billion set in 2015, it said.

The figures include Venture Capital investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate.

Not surprisingly, the year also saw two record breaking quarters in terms of PE fund inflows.

The first quarter of the year, January to March, saw the highest ever inflow at $6.4 bln, followed by the latest quarter, July-September, which saw $5.7 bln, the firm said.

Compared to the same quarter last year, the investment in India by PE firms in July-September was higher by 73%.

It was higher by 5% compared to the preceding three months of April to June.

However, even as the amount of money invested continues to rise, the number of target companies continues to fall.

At 106 deals, the number of investments in July-September has been the lowest in 2017 – down 31% compared to the same period last year and down 20% compared to the immediate previous one.

The number of deals in the first nine months of 2017 (at 402) are 23% lower than that in the comparable period during the previous year (and 35% lower compared to the same period in 2015).

SOFTBANK LEADS

Japanese firms, particularly Softbank, were conspicuous in this year’s numbers.

Out of the $17.6 bln committed this year, over $4 billion — 24% of the total -– was invested by just one company SoftBank. It invested $2.5 billion in Flipkart during the latest quarter, making it the biggest deal for the period.

Softbank also invested $250 million in budget hotels aggregator Oyo and $1.4 Billion in mobile wallet leader Paytm.

SECTORS

The year recorded 21 investments over $200 million in size and 15 deals between $100 million and $200 million.

“The mega deals have been dominated by four sectors: Internet & Mobile; Infrastructure; IT Services & BPO and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance),” the firm said.

Q3’17 recorded as many as 13 investments above $100 million (compared to 10 in the same period last year). Other deals in the quarter included Carlyle’s $300 million into SBI Cards; the $260 million raised by RBL Bank and the $240 million buyout of investor services firm Karvy Computershare by General Atlantic.

TOP DEALS IN 2017