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PE,VC deals dip 27% to 5-year low of $3 billion in Jan-March

The deal street got off to a tepid start in 2017 with the first quarter numbers coming down heavily both in value and volume at $3.04 billion through 238 deals respectively, down 27 per cent from $4.19 billion in 432 deals.

"The first quarter of 2017 saw a 27 per cent decline in PE investments at $3.04 billion through 238 deals. In terms of volume this is down 45 per cent over 432 deals worth $4.19 billion a year ago," says News Corp VCCEdge.

This is the worst low in five years with activity down 45 per cent and investment value plunging 27 per cent on an annual basis. But average deal value is the highest in 15 quarters, thanks to the Bharti Infratel the primary reason, says the report.

Median deal value quadrupled to $2.25 million in Q1 compared to $0.6 million in Q1 of 2016. The top PE deal during the quarter was the Bharti Infratel-KKR, CPPIB deal of $946 million, pushing up the average deal value.

According to the report, the main reason for the sober beginning is the massive fall in angel investments which hit four-year low at $28 million while VC investments dropped 14 per cent.

As per VCCEdge, this investment value doubled against last quarter to $820 million in Q1, though this was a fraction of the USD2,500 million for a year ago. This was primarily because there were no fresh investments of $250 million or more from investors, during the reporting quarter.

Even exits by PEs and VCs fell during the reporting period with exits halving to USD1.4 billion in Q1 from $2.1 billion a year ago. Open markets dominated exit deal value at USD945 million, bouncing back as the preferred exit route.

In terms of regions, Delhi-NCR continues to rule the roost in deal activity at $1,246 million, against $692 million in Mumbai and $441 million in Bengaluru. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai together attracted a much bigger share of PE deals than Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad put together.

The top four incoming PE deals were the Oman-India Joint Investment Fund II, KKR India Credit Fund, ICICI Venture Fund Management's India Advantage Fund Series IV and IDFC PE Fund IV, which together pumped in $641 million, while the key exits during the quarter were the Providence Equity Partners-Idea Cellular deal and the Khazanah Nasional Berhad- Apollo Hospitals deal.

In terms of sectors, information technology continued to dominate the space in Delhi NCR with 29 deals, followed by nine in consumer discretionary and four 4 each in consumer staples and industrials.

Coming second in terms of deal value was Mumbai with 47 deals amounting to $692 million with IT leading the way with 23 deals followed by consumer discretionary with seven deals and financials at six. Bengaluru saw 53 deals worth $441 million, almost 60 per cent of them in IT.
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