With 164 Exits, 2010 Proved To Be Party Time For PE Firms

 It was clearly a party time for private equity firms and, dare we say,  general partners. With a record number of exits, PE firms encashed a big chunk of their previous investments from Indian companies in 2010, arguably bringing to an end the first generation of investments in the country in the 2000-2005 period.

As many as 164 exits were recorded last year according to VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle. This is more than the volumes recorded in the past two years. The total value of money encashed by the investors at USD 5.04 bn is more than double that of the   previous year and even higher than the value of exits between 2007-2009. The most prominent trend last year was the emergence of buybacks as the single biggest source of exits for PE firms, accounting for a third of the total value of exits in 2010. Buybacks by promoters could have been prompted by PE firms