Private equity investments tally at nearly $3 billion in Jan-Mar quarter: Grant Thornton

There were 89 private equity transactions worth $644 million in March this year, following which the PE investment deal tally for the January-March quarter stood at $2.96 billion, says a Grant Thornton report.

According to the global tax, accounting and advisory firm, the January-March PE investment deal tally registered a 14% jump in terms of the value of deals and 27% growth in terms of a number of transactions.

During the same quarter of the previous year, there were 221 PE-deals worth $2.59 billion.

"Growth was driven by seven big-ticket investments over $100 million compared to only four in Q1-2015," the report said.

A sector-wise analysis shows that the PE/VC activity was led by the E-commerce sector, contributing 33% of investment values and startups attracting 66% of investment volumes.

The quarter saw one of the biggest exits by KKR from an India-focused investment - the US private equity giant sold its stake in Alliance Tire group to Japan's Yokohama Rubber for a consideration of $1.2 billion.

Other key sectors which witnessed big ticket investments (over $100 million each) this quarter are banking and financial services, pharma, healthcare, biotech and infrastructure.

"PE/VC investments, on the other hand, continue to be attracted to the E-commerce or consumer technology sector with the quarter witnessing $970 million across 28 investments," Prashant Mehra Partner at Grant Thornton India said.

He added that "notably, more than 180 startups received investments of more than $454 million which is encouraging."