Private equity firms invest $3bn in India in Q3

Both the amount invested and deal count were up from the previous quarter, which saw $2.9m put into 80 deals.

The total amount for the first nine months of 2008 now stands at over $9.7bn, and 330 deals were completed, compared to $9.5bn and 296 deals during the corresponding period in 2007.

The largest investment reported in the third quarter was JPMorgan's $250m investment in Café Coffee Day.

By sector, the IT and IT-enabled services sector attracted the most investments both by value and volume during the third quarter. The financial services sector came second.

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

The third quarter saw almost $1.8bn being raised by India-dedicated private equity funds. Of this, Sequoia Capital successfully raised a $750m second growth capital fund. Other firms that closed new funds during the period include Franklin Templeton, Nexus India Capital and Gaja Capital.

Venture Intelligence is a division of Chennai, India-based TSJ Media.

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