M&A deal value involving India cos declines 4.8% in 2015

Raveena Singhmoneycontrol.com2015 was a mixed bag in terms of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals involving Indian companies.Though the net value – USD 35.1 billion— declined 4.8 percent compared to the previous year, private equity-backed M&A deals rose 129 percent to USD 6.8 billion driven by deals in the High technology sector, according to a Thomson Reuters report.Total cross-border M&A activity increased 73.1 percent to USD 23.2 billion compared to 2014. Outbound and inbound M&A grew 112.3 percent and 63.8 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago, the report said.The average M&A deal size for transactions with disclosed values dropped to USD 70.3 million in 2015 compared to USD77.6 million over the same period last year, as deal activity involving Indian companies witnessed only four deals above USD 1 billion compared to six deals in 2014.With a net value of USD 17.8 billion, foreign firms acquiring Indian companies (majority coming from energy and power) reached its highest since 2011. United States was the top acquirer followed by United Kingdom and Japan.In the outbound space, overseas acquisitions by Indian companies stood at USD 5.4 billion, the highest since 2013, with the healthcare sector accounting for a sizeable chunk. "United States was the top most targeted nation in terms of value and number of deals and accounted for 40.0 percent of the market share worth USD 2.2 billion from 41 announced transactions," the Thomson Reuters report said.According to estimates, M&A advisory fees from completed transactions in India totaled USD 96.8 million in 2015, which was a 40.2 percent decrease from last year. "Completed M&A deals in India for 2015 with USD 11.4 million in related fees, and accounted for 11.8 percent of the wallet share," the report added.