SEA investment deals ballooned to US$21.9b

Majority of investments were pumped into real estate, energy, and technology.

Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) in Southeast Asia skyrocketed to US$21.9b in Q1 2018 from US$687m in Q1 2017, an EY report revealed. Singapore led the leap with aggregated deals valued at US$19.8b.

Across the region, EY noted that key sectors attracting the majority of investments were real estate (55%), energy (23%) and technology (19%).

Meanwhile, the firm said that fundraising slowed to US$821m from US$3.4b in Q1 2017 whilst VC funding climbed to US$369m from US$189m in Q1 2017. Technology deals mostly fueled the rise in VC funding.

“We believe this is the golden age of private equity in the region,” EY Asean M&A and private equity leader Luke Pais commented. Further, the technology sector continues to shine as we see the emergence of more unicorns and baby unicorns.”

EY reported that the tech sector saw attractive growth for PE and VC investments in Q1 2018 with two big deals which include GrabTaxi and Go-Jek at US$2.5b and US$1.5b, respectively.