Jio's string of deals drives up PE investments 12 per cent in H1 2020 to US$ 18.8 billion

The private equity (PE) investments registered a 12 per cent increase in the first half of this calendar year to US$ 18.8 billion (across 341 deals). This rise was driven by a string of deals struck by Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms. Though, this was despite the subdued April-June quarter for PE activity on account of the coronavirus crisis, according to a report by financial data tracker Venture Intelligence.

In 2019, during same period, PE investments worth US$ 16.8 billion (across 503 deals) were recorded.

In HI 2020, Jio Platforms accounted for 51 per cent of the total investment value, as per the data.

Jio Platforms' US$ 9.5 billion private equity haul, excluding Facebook’s US$ 5.7 billion strategic investment, was led by investors from Middle East to the US. KKR, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Vista Equity Partners invested US$ 1.5 billion each, while by Silver Lake Partners and Mubadala Investment invested over a US$ 1 billion each.

H1 2020 witnessed 24 PE/VC investments worth US$ 100 million or more, down from 37 such transactions in the same period last year.

Without the Jio investments, PE-VC investments during H1 2020 would have been 45 per cent lower year-on-year, according to the Venture Intelligence data.

At US$ 4.1 billion across 270 deals, venture capital investments fell 11 per cent in value terms and 31 per cent in terms of volumes when compared with the corresponding period in 2019, which had witnessed US$ 4.6 billion across 393 transactions. There was a decrease in VC investments by 52 per cent in value terms year-on-year to US$ 1 billion in the April-June quarter.