Private equity firms invested about $1.3 billion across 75 deals during the quarter ended September 30, 2013, registering a decline of 67 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

According to research firm Venture Intelligence, the latest numbers take PE investments in the first nine months of 2013 to $5,059 million through 281 investments.

This is down 38 per cent compared to the corresponding period of 2012 when deals worth $8,152 million were made via 373 investments.

There were only two PE investments worth over $100 million during the third quarter of 2013 compared to five such transactions in the same period last year and eight during the immediate previous quarter, the Venture Intelligence analysis showed.

Baring Private Equity Asia’s Rs 1,687-crore ($260-million) buyout of 41.8 per cent stake in publicly listed IT Services firm Hexaware Technologies was the top PE deal during Q3 2-13.

Including the mandatory open offer for an additional 26 per cent stake, the deal value could go up by another Rs 1,058 crore, the report said.

The second largest transaction reported was e-tailer Flipkart’s raising of an additional $200 million from existing investors, including Tiger Global, Accel India, Iconiq Capital and South Africa-based strategic investor Naspers.

Led by Hexaware and Flipkart deals and accompanied by the $75-million commitment by Softbank to another e-tailer Snapdeal.com, IT & ITES companies grabbed almost 45 per cent of the PE investments (by value) in the third quarter of this calendar year.

IT & ITES ($582 million across 25 investments) was followed by manufacturing ($185 million across nine investments) and healthcare and life sciences ($140 million across 14 investments) as the most favoured industries for PE investments in Q3 2013, the report added.

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