Winners all: (From left to right) Bharti Tele-Ventures' Sunil Mittal, GECIS' Pramod Bhasin, Moser Baer's Deepak Puri and Sabre Capital's Rana Talwar

Warburg Pincus-Bharti Tele-Ventures: The industry is unanimous on the significance of the deal. To put it simply, it suddenly made India very sexy. Between 1999 and 2001, Warburg Pincus decided to bet $290 million (Rs 1,276 crore then) in a telecom start-up (getting 18.5 per cent in equity), and ended up making returns that few investors do worldwide. Between last August and March this year, Warburg sold a little over 12 per cent of its stake in Bharti for more than $1 billion (Rs 4,400 crore). Its remaining 6 per cent is currently worth another $725 million (Rs 3,192 crore). Truly, a once-in-a-lifetime deal for any investor.

Oak Hill-General Atlantic Partners-GECIS: The single-biggest deal in BPO so far, GE's partial sale of its BPO arm saw Oak and gap pick up 30 per cent each for a total price of $500 million (Rs 2,200 crore). In a way, the sale of GECIS also put to test the robustness of India's bpo story. Happily for GE and the industry, GECIS came out with flying colours. It will be interesting to see what kind of an exit Oak and gap manage eventually. One option could be to float GECIS.

ChrysCapital-Spectramind: This is another BPO story, but of a very different type. In 2000, when ChrysCapital's Ashish Dhawan decided to back Spectramind's Raman Roy, the BPO industry comprised only the captive units of companies like GE and AmEx. By backing an individual, Dhawan possibly stoked the BPO boom that followed. Of course, Spectramind was a life-saver for Dhawan too. The $10 million (Rs 44 crore then) he invested in it, fetched him $60 million (Rs 288 crore then) in 2002, rescuing his first fund from total loss.

Baring-BFL-Mphasis: When Rahul Bhasin and N. Subramaniam of Baring Private Equity Partners bought an ailing BFL Software from Keshav Bangur in March 1998, they struck India's first buyout deal. But the Baring-BFL story got interesting only after the buyout. In June 2000, BFL acquired Jerry Rao's us-based Mphasis Corporation in a stock-swap deal, and then went on to merge Msource with Mphasis-BFL. When BT went to press, Mphasis had been put on the block by Baring India.

IFC-Moser Baer: Back in 1994, when the India story was not even a glimmer in the eyes of international investors, IFC had the courage, and possibly the vision, to invest in an Indian company that wanted to make it big in a product segment (floppy diskettes) dominated by Japanese and Taiwanese giants. Then again, in 1998, when Moser Baer wanted to get into CD-ROMs, IFC put in $6 million (Rs 25.2 crore then) in equity and $20 million (Rs 84 crore then) in debt, followed by another $15 million (Rs 66 crore then) in equity in 2000 and $30 million (Rs 132 crore then) in debt. Today, Moser Baer is one of the biggest global manufacturers of optical media storage devices.

Actis-Punjab Tractors: This deal will always be remembered as the first private equity investment in public sector disinvestment. Actis, a London-headquartered firm, bought the Punjab government's 23.5 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors in July 2003.

ICICI Venture-Dr Reddy's: ICICI Venture, easily one of the most innovative PE investors in India, struck a unique deal with the Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Labs in March this year. At a cost of $56 million (Rs 246.4 crore), ICICI Venture agreed to bankroll Dr Reddy's generic drug launches in the US during 2004-05 and 2005-06. It's a brave new R&D funding model for the pharma industry, and an even braver decision for ICICI Venture.

Sabre Capital-Centurion Bank: It's another buyout, but one that involved a turnaround. In April 2003, Rana Talwar-promoted Sabre Capital Group (besides BankMuscat and Singapore's Keppel Corporation) offered to recapitalise an ailing Centurion Bank. (Sabre was expected to bring in Rs 319 crore in two phases.) In June this year, Centurion Bank agreed to merge with the Bank of Punjab to create the Centurion Bank of Punjab, with 235 branches, 2.2 million customers and Rs 9,395 crore in assets.