It was a very busy week on Deal street. Reliance came up with two back to back private equity deals for its telecom venture JIO platforms. GlaxoSmithKline PLC managed to exit its entire equity stake in HUL in one go.
These deals clearly tell us that the appetite for Indian equities among global investors remains strong. The coming weeks will see more deals. These deals virtually nullify the index-based selling that typifies FII fund flows. It could also signal the beginning of a new investment era in big-ticket Indian buys by global firms. When such big-ticket deals happen in the listed space, they clearly signal a strong latent appetite for the INDIA story.
While it could take a while for global fund flows from retail investors and FII to stabilise, the private equity players are likely to steal a march over them. When Indian firms are in a hurry and willing to do deals, global private equity is certain to lap them up quickly.
These deals signal good times for risk-takers. While retail Indian investors remain anchored to returns and recency biases, global PE is going to be setting the direction of where our markets need to move towards. Domestic investors will follow this trend tailing global PE players. But, the nature and colour of the big deals will keep constantly changing.
Clearly, a lot of domestic firms are in a tearing hurry to raise money very quickly.