Private equity (PE) investments dipped 15% in India during the 12 months ending December 2012, according to a Venture Intelligence report. PE firms invested Rs. 48,744 crore in 406 deals in 2012, against Rs. 57,141 crore across 483 deals in 2011.
“PE managers are more judicious and
taking longer period to deploy their funds,” said KEC Raja Kumar, founder and CEO, Ascent Capital.
“Limited Partners interest in Indian PE funds continues to be lukewarm. This would change provided the current rally in public markets results in exit realisation for PE funds,” he said. That the environment continues to be challenging for new fund raising has also contributed to the investment slowdown. 
These figures — which include VC investments and exclude PE investments in real estate — take total investments by PE firms in five years to $41.4 billion across 2,036 transactions.
Also, PE investments in October-December 2012 dipped over 32% to Rs. 5,561 crore (across 82 deals) compared to Rs. 8,203 crore invested (across 121 deals) in the year-ago period.