According to the latest report by Venture Intelligence, a research service focussed on private equity and venture capital, India has received private equity (PE) investments worth nearly US$ 10 billion in the first nine months of this year, with US$ 3 billion coming in in the last three months alone.

"Private equity firms invested about US$ 3 billion in 116 Indian companies during the quarter ended September taking the total investments in the first nine months of the year to over US$ 9.7 billion across 330 deals," reveals the report.

The report further says that PE investments in the September quarter were lower compared to the corresponding period last year when US$ 4.2 billion was invested in 115 deals. It is, however, higher in comparison with the immediate previous quarter which saw 80 deals totalling US$ 2.9 million.

"Pre-IPO placements and buyouts completely dried up during the latest quarter. While late stage investments accounted for a third of the deals during Q3 of 2008, the share of venture capital investments rose to 40 per cent in volume terms," Venture Intelligence Founder and CEO Arun Natarajan said.

The report further highlighted that the July-September quarter saw almost US$ 1.8 billon being raised by India-dedicated private equity funds.

According to the report, Franklin Templeton, Nexus India Capital and Gaja Capital are some of the other firms that closed new funds during the period.

Source: IBEF