India a 'safe bet' for investors: Analysts

"India's 1.2 billion strong population, an aspirational growing middle income group and per capita income growth continue to attract PE investors," Sahad PV, founder and editor of VCCircle.com says.

The average deal value in 2013 increased by a third to $21 million from $16 million in 2012. Meanwhile big-ticket deals, those of more than $100 million, constituted 56 percent of the total deal value in 2013.

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In the top PE deal of last year, New Delhi-based Bharti Airtel, one of the largest providers of mobile and fixed telephony in India, raised $1.26 billion from the Qatar Foundation Endowment.

According to reports, the deal is the largest PE investment in India in the last five years.

Dhanpal Jhaveri, partner and CEO of Everstone Capital, expects this PE growth will persist. "Despite slowdown, the PE inflow to India will continue to grow in the long term, because the country has a unique position in the global arena with strong domestic consumption and a rapidly growing middle class," says Jhaveri. "Global investors know the Indian market very well and they evaluate the country on an absolute basis."

Last year also saw major PE deals like global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquiring a controlling stake in the Alliance Tire Group, a global tire maker, for $470 million from Warburg Pincus.

Baring Private Equity Asia acquired a 71 percent stake in Hexaware Technologies for $390 million in the same year, while PE major Apax Partners acquired GlobalLogic, an offshore software services provider, for $420 million.

Partners Group, based in Switzerland with $33 billion under management, has acquired a majority stake in CSS Corp, a management and technology support services company, for $270 million.

A sector-wide analysis shows that the top five industries in terms of the number of deals are IT, which attracted 210, followed by consumer discretionary (152), financial (99), healthcare (73) and industrial (60).

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