India private equity investment declines along with broader Asia region in 2022

India recorded a 23.4% year-over-year decline in private equity investments to $28.27 billion in 2022, while China and Southeast Asia experienced steeper declines, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Transaction value in China, the region's largest economy, slipped 45.1% year over year to $70.86 billion, while Southeast Asia logged a 46.2% decline in value to $13.38 billion.

India, however, has shown growth in its percentage of total private equity investments in the broader Asia region as China's percentage has declined. India's share jumped to 25.1% in 2022 from 11.9% in 2020. China's percentage dropped to 63% in 2022 from 80.2% in 2020, the data shows.

Fourth-quarter 2022 numbers

India received $4.80 billion in investments from private equity firms across 247 deals in the last quarter of 2022 compared to $10 billion across 390 transactions during the same period a year earlier.

* Download a spreadsheet with data featured in this story. * Read about the pullback of U.S.-based private equity investments in China. * Explore more private equity coverage.

In China, private equity deal value in the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022, fell year over year to $13.7 billion across 585 deals from $38.1 billion across 1,010 transactions.

Tech investments in demand

The technology, media and telecommunications sector in India attracted the largest amount of capital from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31 2022, with about $27.66 billion in transaction value. The consumer and financial sectors followed, with about $14.60 billion and $8.04 billion, respectively.

Megadeals

The largest transaction in India in 2022 was the $2.42 billion acquisition of power producer Sembcorp Energy India Ltd. An investment group including Oman Investment Corp. bought the company.

The $805 million series J funding round of news application developer VerSe Innovation Private Ltd. ranked second, with Sofina SA and Sumeru Ventures LLC among the investors. BPEA EQT's $800 million acquisition of IGT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. came in third.