Private equity investment in the country is set to touch $13.5 billion during this year, making India one of the top seven recipients of such funding in the world, a study said. Further, private equity funding is projected to reach around $20 billion by 2010.
According to a study by research firm Evalueserve, currently there are more than 366 PE firms operating in India, while another 69 are planning to start their operations soon.
“In total, they seem to have amassed $48 billion earmarked for investment in India during the next three-and-a-half years,” says the report. Interestingly, investments made by private equity firms in India has seen a drastic rise touching $7.46 billion from 299 deals in 2006, whereas the figure was just $20 million from five deals in 1996. In 2005, such investments stood at $2.18 billion from 146 deals. “… if, indeed, Indian companies end up receiving $20 billion in such funding, this would represent a thousand-fold increase between the fourteen years of 1996 and 2010,” the report pointed out.
However, it must be noted that such investments had come down drastically during 2001-03 due to the dotcom bubble burst.
– Bangalore Bureau
