New Delhi: Private Equity deals worth USD 526 million were sealed in August, taking the tally to USD 7.7 billion for the first eight months this year, according to a global consultancy firm.
As per the assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton's latest Dealtracker, the volume of deals in the PE space increased in 2014 and the IT & ITES sector cornered the maximum number of deals.
There has been a significant uptrend this year both in terms of number and value of deals; 389 PE transactions worth USD 7,698 million were sealed. During January-August in 2013, there were 286 PE deals worth USD 7,408 million.
"PE volume has shown a significant uptrend YTD (year-to- date) 2014 as against previous years with 15 deals of over USD 100 million each," said the report.
E-commerce continued to dominate the PE space in August as well. July had witnessed the landmark deal of USD 1 billion investment into Flipkart.
The momentum continued in August as well when the IT & ITeS sector witnessed 20 transactions worth USD 214 million.
"Private equity is very strong in the e-commerce and dot com space and we will see more of that in the coming months," Grant Thornton India LLP Partner Harish HV said.
As per the number of deals, pharma, healthcare and biotech attracted 6 deals worth USD 23 million, followed by real estate which witnessed 4 deals worth USD 82 million and the retail and consumer sector witnessed 3 transactions worth USD 93 million.
Major PE deals during August included Hike, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank Corporation, raising USD 65 million. The funding was led by Tiger Global, a New York-based investment firm.
The other two major deals included realty firm Supertech raising USD 65 million from the PE firm Xander to finance its upcoming township and housing projects in Gurgaon, and online food ordering platform foodpanda raising USD 60 million from Falcon Edge Capital and Rocket Internet AG.
