EMPEA reports that private equity fund raising in emerging markets (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Russia) is on track to beat 2007 levels — see EMPEA Release. A total of 104 funds have raised more than $35 billion in the first six months of 2008, up 68 per cent from the amount raised in the same period last year. The release further states that fund raising in 2008 so far has been led by Emerging Asia, which EMPEA defines primarily as China and India. In fact, interest in markets such as China and India is even higher this year — Emerging Asia accounted for 75 per cent of total funds raised in the first six months of 2008 against 55 per cent in 2007. China has raised $11.2 billion while India has raised $3 billion.
In a separate study Thomson Reuters reports — Thomson Reuters Release — that fund raising in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) amounted to $17.8 billion during the six months ended June 2008, with Hong Kong scoring the highest with $9.29 billion. India came in fourth — it raised $1.49 billion, against $513.7 million in the same period last year. Thomson Reuters also reports that total private equity investments in the region dropped 16.4 per cent to $3.7 billion against $4.4 billion in the same period last year. Investments in India were at $1.47 billion, up 17.7 per cent from $1.25 last year.
Now, if you compare the numbers from each report, just looking at the India fund raising numbers, there are clear inconsistencies. Thomson Reuters says that India has raised $1.49 billion while EMPEA puts it at $3 billion. There still does not seem any unanimity on investment and fund raising data and this makes tracking actual industry performance rather difficult.
Of course, the positive takeaway from both reports is that India remains high on the radar of global private equity investors and the downturn in the US market has not impacted the inflow of funds yet, even if investments are at a slight dip.
