India M&A deals crosses $5 bn mark in 2 months

Corporate India's merger and acquisition (M&A) deal activity in February stood at $2.3 billion taking the total M&A kitty so far this year to over $5 billion.

According to the monthly deal report of VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.Com, the M&A deal value during February stood at $2,317 million, 13 times of that in the same month last year.

The deal count also increased to 51 in February compared to 28 deals in February 2009.

Though there has been a significant upturn on a year on year basis, but a look at monthly numbers show that the deal momentum of December 2009, when M&A deals worth $2.99 billion were announced could not be sustained in the first two months of this year, the report said.

India Inc recorded deals worth $2.8 billion and $2.3 billion in January and February 2010.

The month of February saw as many as 23 domestic deals worth $980 million, compared to 8 deals worth $4 million in the year ago period, the report said.

Besides, the number of outbound deals more than doubled from 8 in February 2009 to 18 in February 2010, while, the number of inbound deals remained virtually unchanged with 8 deals in February 2010.