BackJio's string of deals drives up PE investments 12% in H1 2020 to $18.8 bln
Jio Platforms $9.5 billion private equity haul, excluding Facebook’s $5.7 billion strategic investment, was led by investors from Middle East to the US
PremiumMUMBAI: A string of deals struck by Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms helped drive private equity (PE) investments 12% higher in the first half of this calendar year to $18.8 billion (across 341 deals). 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 the same period last year, PE investments worth $16.8 billion (across 503 deals) were recorded.
Jio Platforms accounted for 51% of the total investment value in H1 2020, the data showed.
Jio Platforms' $9.5 billion private equity haul, excluding Facebook’s $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 $1.5 billion each, while by Silver Lake Partners and Mubadala Investment invested over a $1 billion each.
H1 2020 witnessed 24 PE/VC investments worth $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% lower year-on-year, according to the Venture Intelligence data.
At $4.1 billion across 270 deals, venture capital investments fell 11% in value terms and 31% in terms of volumes when compared with the corresponding period in 2019, which had witnessed $4.6 billion across 393 transactions. VC investments shrunk 52% in value terms year-on-year to $1 billion in the April-June quarter.
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