PEs invested $2.5 bn in 97 deals in July-September

Private equity firms invested about $2.5 billion across 97 deals during the quarter ended September 2012 driven mainly by the Bain Capital-Genpact deal, says a study.

According to the study by Venture Intelligence, the $1 billion investment by Bain Capital in Gurgaon-based BPO firm Genpact, the investment amount in the September quarter (excluding real estate deals) showed a growth of 4.4 per cent over the amount invested in the same period last year.

In the September quarter last year, private equity firms invested $2,415 million across 120 transactions, Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on Private Equity and M&A transaction activity in India said.

The September quarter PE investment value also showed a healthy 32 per cent surge over the immediate previous quarter (which had witnessed $1,909 million being invested across 105 transactions).

Despite the quarterly uptick, the total PE investments in the first nine months of this year stood at $6,488 million across 309 transactions, down significantly from the $8,882 million across 357 transactions in the same period in 2011.

The Bain Capital-Genpact deal was the largest PE investment during the third quarter this year, followed by the SBI-Macquarie's $150 million investment in Ashoka Concessions, a road-construction subsidiary of publicly-listed Ashoka Buildcon.

Led by the Genpact deal, IT & ITES companies attracted $1,295 million (51 per cent of the value pie) across 45 reported investments during third quarter of this year.

In other IT & ITES transactions, Blackstone acquired a 6.1 per cent stake in publicly listed Financial Technologies India through open market transactions; Actis invested $40 million in ATM outsourcing and payments company AGS Transact Technologies and Carlyle picked up shares worth $39 million in publicly listed Infotech Enterprises.

Venture Capital type deals accounted for 54 per cent of the investments (in volume terms) during Q3 2012 compared to 42 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.

Meanwhile, private equity-real estate firms made 10 investments (amounting to $394 million) during the quarter ended September 2012.

The volume of investments was down 44 per cent compared to the 18 investments in the same period last year (which witnessed $726 million worth of deals), the report said.