Private equity investments up 45% this year, says Ernst & Young

"Exit activity, on the other hand, has been somewhat dampened by the volatility seen in the stock markets over the recent past, especially in the mid-cap and small-cap spaces. Nonetheless, there is a good amount of deal activity underpinned by the secondary and strategic sale segments and we expect the second half of 2018 to be as good as the first half for exits as well," he added.

In terms of deal volume, investment activity increased by 50 percent to 63 deals in July 2018, compared to 42 in July 2017.

Breaking away from recent trends, July 2018 recorded fewer large size deals. There were three deals of value greater than $100 million in July 2018, accounting for only 26 percent of total investments as against a 65 percent investment share in June 2018.

TPG was the most active PE investor in July 2018 and announced four deals, including a $105 million investment in Sai Life Sciences Limited for a 35 percent stake, $40 million investment in e-commerce platform Livespace and co-investments with a group of other investors in online ticketing platform Bookmyshow and an NBFC, Five Star Business Finance Limited.

In terms of stages of investment, expansion/growth investments continued to lead in terms of value of investments, with 20 deals worth $633 million, 23 percent higher compared to July 2017; while startups ranked at the top in terms of number of deals (33 deals).

July saw $431 million invested in startups, highest monthly value in 2018. Buyouts on the other hand, recorded the lowest monthly value of investments in 2018, with two deals worth $100 million.

From a sector point of view, real estate and financial services were the most active sectors in terms of value of investments. In terms of number of deals, technology with 16 deals was the leader.

July 2018 recorded eleven exits totalling $376 million, a slight increase of 6 percent compared to July 2017 ($352 million across eight exits).