PE deals jump 108% to $33.8 bn in 2020: Report

Close to $18 billion that Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail mopped up from a slew of private equity transactions in 2020 has pushed up the money inflows through this route by 108 per cent to $33.8 billion, according to an industry report.

As per the data collated by Refinitiv, private equity investments increased 108 per cent in 2020 over the previous year, with the number of deals jumping from 665 in 2019 to 791 in 2020 at $33.8 billion, despite the pandemic. In 2019, total PE deals stood at $16.2 billion.

Most of the fund inflows were in the third quarter, fetching $24 billion, which, however, tapered off in Q4 to just about $4.57 billion, as per the data from the agency that tracks financial transactions at a global level.

Internet-specific firms continued to attract the maximum PE interest during the year, with total equity capital invested at $7.4 billion in 2020, compared to $5.5 billion in 2019, the Refinitiv data showed.

In terms of industry-specific investments, communication ($19.1 billion), Internet-related, and computer software ($3.6 billion) companies have seen the maximum investments, while financial services ($1.4 billion), transportation ($127 million) and computer hardware ($18.49 million) were among the sectors that saw a decline in 2020.

Fund-raising for growth capital declined to $4.3 billion in 2020 from $7.25 billion in 2019, a fall of 40 per cent.

Top 10 PE deals of the year were Jio Platforms (15.68 billion led by Facebook and Google), Tower Infrastructure Trust (3.4 billion), Flipkart ($1.2 billion) Jio Digital Fibre (1.016 billion), Zomato ($826.42 million), Think & Learn ($823 million), Oravel Stays ($807 million), Reliance Retail ($755.93 million), SBI General Insurance ($439 million), and Pep Technologies getting $420 million.

Illustration: Dado Ruvic/Reuters