2016 to see 20-25% growth in M&A activity: EY

Ajay Arora, Partner and Head-Merger and Acquisition (M&A), Transaction & Advisory, Ernst Young, while reviewing the year 2015 for M&A activity says the overall deals reduced from USD 28 billion in 2014 to USD 24 billion in 2015.

Global slowdown impacted domestic M&A activity in 2015, says Arora. However, he is hopeful of the 2014 level of activity to come back in 2016. He sees a 20-25 percent growth in M&A in 2016.

According to him outbound M&A activity picked up in 2015 due to deals in pharma space and deal by OVL. He thinks the outbound M&A activity in 2016 for oil and gas, and pharma space is likely to be strong but could be muted in the auto, manufacturing and power equipment space.

However, inbound M&A activity may remain steady as global buyers are cautious. “Overall inbound global corporations to be cautious,” he says.