PE players seal over $737 mn deals in February: Thornton

Private equity deals worth $737 million were sealed in February through 73 transactions, registering a fall of 7 per cent over last year, says a Grant Thornton report. The PE investment activities fell in February despite the increase in number of deals.

In February 2014, there were deals worth $794 million through 31 transactions, the assurance, tax and advisory firm said. The first two months of this year saw PE deals worth nearly $1.9 billion.

"PE investment activity witnessed 135 per cent increase in volumes as compared to the previous period, largely driven by e-commerce deals," the report added.

Clocking the maximum number of transactions, IT & ITes saw 40 deals worth $367 million, followed by retail and consumer sector which saw 7 deals worth $52 million and pharma with 6 deals worth $49 million. "PE investment activity continues to be focused on the e-commerce sector which shows a strong faith in the consumer," Grant Thornton India LLP Partner Prashant Mehra said.

Mishra further said "as far as the budget impact goes, overall the budget was progressive which was pro ease of doing business in India and initiates steps in the right direction and will thus accelerate deal activity even further."

The top PE deals during the month were, Equis Funds Group's investment of $116 million in Bangalore-based developer Assetz.

Other key deals include mobile transactions platform FreeCharge raising $ 80 million from Valiant Capital Management, Tybourne Capital Management as well as the already invested firms and Temasek and Norwest Venture Partner's $60 million investment in Manthan Software Services.