PE investments up 36% to $5.4 bn in Q1 2017: Report

New Delhi: Private equity firms invested about $5.44 billion across 117 deals during the quarter ended March 2017, 36 percent higher than the year ago period even as the number of transactions declined, says a survey.

According to early data from Venture Intelligence, private equity investments in the first quarter of this year rose 36 percent on a year-on-year basis and 23 percent over the previous quarter (October- December 2016).

However, the number of investments was lower by 41 percent compared to last year and 35 percent lower than the previous quarter.

"Interestingly, almost $3.6 billion, or 2/3rds of the total value of the investments during the period, were announced/reported in just March," noted Arun Natarajan, CEO of Venture Intelligence.

The surge in deal value was driven by big ticket deals. The latest quarter witnessed 11 PE investments worth $100 million or more compared to 12 such transactions in the same period last year and eight during the immediate previous quarter.

Many of the larger deals during January-March this year involved secondary sales by either promoters or existing PE investors, the report noted.

Telecom tower firm Bharti Infratel saw parent firm Bharti Airtel sell a 10.3 percent stake to KKR and Canadian pension fund CPPIB for almost $952 million.

CPPIB also invested $720 million in IT services firm GlobalLogic, providing an exit route for existing PE investor Apax Partners. True North (formerly India Value Fund) exited one hospital chain (Manipal Health via a $215 million sale to Temasek) and entered a new one (KIMS Group via a $200 million investment that gave an exit to Ascent Capital and OrbiMed).

Sector-wise, IT and ITES companies accounted for 53 percent of the PE investment value pie in January-March quarter of this year, attracting almost $2.9 billion across 64 deals.

Meanwhile, BFSI companies attracted $498 million across 17 PE investments, followed closely by healthcare and life sciences companies which attracted $496 million across eight transactions, the report added.