India Inc's M&A deal tally till Oct touches $29 bn

Corporate India's merger and acquisition (M&A) spree saw a significant uptrend in October, taking the deal tally for the first 10 months this year to USD 29 billion, says a Grant Thornton report. According to the assurance, tax and advisory firm, there were 58 M&A transactions worth USD 3,144 million in October, a jump of 233 percent. M&As were up 35 percent in terms of the number of transactions.

The significant growth in October values was due to big ticket transactions, the report said, adding that seven deals were valued over USD 100 million each and one was worth a billion dollar. Together, they contributed to around 80 percent of total M&A value. "Outbound investments and Domestic M&A have been demonstrating signs of growth," Grant Thornton India LLP Partner Prashant Mehra said, adding that this growth was mainly driven by inbound transactions, which contributed to around USD 1.6 billion across 12 deals.

During January-October, there were 486 deals worth USD 28,798 million, as against 476 transactions worth USD 27,516 million in the year-ago period. Going forward there is likely to be a positive outlook for deal activity. "With all the macro indicators looking positive, the current traction will continue to grow.Moreover, amidst the visibility of more on ground action around Government's key policy and reforms, the stage is set to witness a high growth in the deal activity for the next few quarters," Mehra said. A sector wise analysis shows that M&A activity was driven by telecom, which contributed to 38 percent of deal values while IT & ITeS and pharma together contributed to another 23 percent in October. Major deals during October include American Tower Corporation's 51 percent majority sate in Viom Network for USD 1.2 billion and Mumbai-based Carnival Group's acquisition of Larsen & Toubro's commercial real estate projects in Chandigarh for USD 267 million.