The elephant has pipped the dragon on the private equity (PE) turf for the first time. The country bested China in private equity investments for the first six months of 2007, and currently ranks second on the Asian (including Japan) PE investments chart. PEs continued to buy the India story while a few Asian favourities like South Korea saw setbacks. According to Centre for Asia Private Equity Research data, India has seen $3.7 billion in PE investments during January-June, 2007. This puts it just behind Japan, which drew PE funds worth $4.91 billion, but ahead of China’s (including Hong Kong) $2.6 billion in the same period. “For the first half (H1) of 2007, Australia has dropped from last year’s first position to sixth this year, with Japan being number one, followed by India and People’s Republic of China,” says Centre for Asia Private Equity Research MD Kathleen Ng. […]