Softbank contributes nearly 25% to India's PE investments till September

Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank has pput its money behind 7 unicorns in India, including Paytm, OYO Rooms and Ola Cabs, among others. (Image: Reuters)

Moneycontrol News 

Private equity firms invested about USD 17.6 billion in Indian companies in the first nine months of 2017, making investments sail past their previous high of USD 17.3 billion recorded in 2015, according to transaction research firm Venture Intelligence.

The year so far has already recorded as many as 21 investments over USD 200 million in addition to 15 deals between USD 100 million and USD 200 million.

Over USD 4 billion of the investment value – 24 percent of the total – has been committed by just one investor - Japan-based SoftBank.

Its investments included USD 250 million in budget hotel room aggregator Oyo, USD 1.4 billion in mobile wallet leader Paytm and a whopping USD 2.5 billion in e-commerce leader Flipkart.

However, the number of deals in the first nine months of 2017 (at 402) are 23 percent lower than that in the comparable period during the previous year.

The latest quarter

PE firms invested about USD 5.7 billion across 106 deals during the quarter ended September this year – the second best quarter ever, behind only Jan–Mar 2017 (which had recorded USD 6.4 billion being invested across 163 transactions.)

The third quarter of 2017 recorded as many as 13 investments above USD 100 million compared to 10 in the same period last year.

SoftBank’s USD 2.5 billion investment in Flipkart was the largest reported during the quarter of July to September.

The next three largest investments during the third quarter were accounted for by BFSI companies - Carlyle’s USD 300 million into SBI Cards; the USD 260 million raised by RBL Bank and the USD 240 million buyout of investor services firm Karvy Computershare by General Atlantic, Venture Intelligence reported.