PE firms invest $2.5 bn in Jul-Sep

Private equity firms have invested $2.5 billion in the country in the July-September quarter this year, a tad higher than the year ago period, says a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.

According to the PwC MoneyTree India report, a quarterly study of private equity investment activity based on data by Venture Intelligence, private equity PE firms invested $2.5 billion across 97 deals in Q3 of 2012, against $2.4 billion from 121 deals a year ago.

"With the year having entered in to its last lap, it is quite unlikely that PE investments in 2012 will be at par with those in 2011.

"However, as we approach the year end, the sentiment seems to be reviving and this augurs well for 2013," PwC Leader, Private Equity Sanjeev Krishan said.

Krishan further said that though there is a lack of pick up in investments in the infrastructure sector, the opening up of multi-brand retail sector to foreign investment is expected to generate investments in due course.

A sector-wise analysis showed that with 45 deals of total $1.3

billion, the IT and ITeS sector maintained its leading position in both value as well as volume terms in the quarter.

The ITeS-BPO segment saw ten-fold growth in investments to $1 billion from three deals in the quarter.

The manufacturing sector attracted $215 million from eight deals in the quarter, compared to $53 million from eight deals in the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the banking, financial services and insurance sector received investments worth $200 million from 12 deals in this quarter.

The engineering and construction sector, which did not report any deal in the previous quarter, is among the top five sectors this quarter, with an investment of $165 million from two deals, the report said.

By region, the National Capital Region received the highest level of funding in this quarter surpassing Mumbai with investments worth $1.3 billion (a 53 per cent share of the total PE investments) from 26 deals.

The investment received by NCR in this quarter is nearly four times the investment received in the previous quarter and about five times in Q3 of 2011.