Indian companies are evoking significant interest from overseas private equity investors with an inflow of $ 3.5 billion (about Rs 14,500 crore) during the first four months in this year.
This inflow is about half of that registered during 2006.
“The total deal value has increased from $2 billion in 2005 to $7.8 billion in 2006 to $3.5 billion in January-April 2007”, said ‘Dealtracker Volume-II – a report prepared by the international investment consultant Grant Thronton.
Investments by private equity funds registered with the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have contributed to 34% of the deal volume and about 30% of the deal value during the four-month period.
There were 142 private equity deals during the period, including investments by Khazanah Nasional Berhad in Infrastructure Development Finance Company ($188.48 million ), Morgan Stanley in National Stock Exchange ($137.78 million), Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, CSFB and eight others in NDTV Networks ($120 million) and IL&FS Investment Managers in QVC Realty ($100 million).
The sectors which attracted significant private equity investments include real estate, banking and financial services, media and entertainment.
The report further pointed out that there were 213 merger and acquisition deals involving Indian companies during January-April 2007. The total amount involved in the M&A deals totalled USD 43 billion (about Rs1,75,000 crore).
There were 72 outbound cross border deals involving $24.4 billion, while the 38 inbound cross border deals were valued at $17 billion.
Source : Livemint