In a sign of increasing business confidence in India, mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity as well as private equity (PE) deals peaked in 2014 at a total of $ 50.47 billion against $ 38.17 billion in 2013.
According to the 10 Grant Thornton India LLP Annual Deal Tracker, of the total $ 38.11 billion ($ 28.16 billion ) were M&A deals while private equity deals were at $ 12.36 billion ($ 10 billion). ``In about 10 years, we have grown from a market of US$ 16 billion worth of deals to $ 50 billion which is a huge jump,’’ Harish H.V. partner, Grant Thornton India said. ``It shows that M&A is now part and parcel of corporate strategy in India.’’
Mr. Harish told this correspondent the momentum of M&A activity is likely to grow ``on the back of business optimism and the fact that there is ample room for consolidation in several sectors as there are still many fringe players.’’
Private equity deals grew 23 per cent to $ 12.35 billion and PE activity has grown from less than $ 1 billion in 2005 to current levels, ``which is again a huge jump.’’
According to the report, M&A activity saw increase in the inbound and domestic segments which together contributed over 80 per cent of the total M&A values. The value of inbound deals in 2014 rose 35 per cent to $11.82 billion while the value of domestic deals in 2014 increased over 189 per cent to $ 16.316 billion with over 20 deals valued at over US$ 100 million each although volumes of domestic deals rose to 253. Cross border deals including Inbound and Outbound grew 123 per cent to $17.81 billion of which inbound deals were up 35 per cent at $ 11.8 billion. Outbound deals declined by a third to $5.98 billion.
``There was also the bounce back of cross-border deals both inbound and outbound which accounts for almost half the total value of deals,’’ Mr. Harish said adding that from a sector perspective, these happened in IT, pharmaceuticals and to some extent the natural resources and financial services.
