Private Equity investments in India decreased 74 per cent in the Oct-Dec quarter from the preceding quarter to $1 billion, according to PwC's MoneyTree India Report.
In the July to September period, private equity investments in India totalled $3.8 billion. In the Oct-Dec quarter of 2011, PE investments were $1.49 billion, said the report, which has sourced data from Venture Intelligence.
“For the last three years, starting 2010, investments in the fourth quarter have shown a decrease as compared with the third quarter,” the report said.
With 30 deals worth $167 million in Q4, the IT and ITES sector was the leader in value as well as volume terms. However, as compared with the preceding quarter, the sector witnessed a drop of 93 per cent in investments in value terms from $2.4 billion.
The healthcare and life sciences sector, manufacturing sector and banking financial services and insurance sector registered a decline of 51 per cent, 32 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively.
The agri-business sector attracted $146 million from four deals, recording a growth of 18 per cent in value terms.
However, in an interesting development, the education sector attracted PE investments worth $55 million in the quarter under review.
“Slow reforms in the formal education space, inadequate public funding and willingness to pay for quality education are driving private innovations and investments in the education sector,” Dhiraj Mathur, Leader, Education, PwC India said. .
With a lot of regulatory uncertainties and delayed completion of projects, PE investors chose to pour their money in late stages of the projects as well as into companies that are a decade or more old.
“In Q4 of 2012, private investments in late-stage deals recorded the highest value, with $494 million from 19 deals, an increase of 11 per cent from previous quarter,” the report said.
Among the regions, Mumbai and Delhi swapped positions, with the National Capital Region attracting $318 million of the investments followed by Mumbai which attracted $248 million.