M&A street sees Rs 1.3 lakh cr changing hands in Apr-Oct: CMIE

Leading macroeconomic research agency Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said that mergers & acquisitions (M&As) more than doubled in the first seven months of the fiscal with the deal size touching a hefty Rs 1.3 lakh crore, involving 346 transactions.

The biggest deal was clinched during April-October 2010, raked in a whopping Rs 39,656 crore, paling the Rs 11,546.6 crore deal struck in the year ago period.

The average deal size was also significantly higher this year with the size touching Rs 373.1 crore, as against Rs 169.8 crore in the April-October 2009 period, says the report. The period also saw 135 mergers against 106 in April-October 2009.

There were 21 deals worth Rs 21,957 crore in April, 17 transactions involving Rs 9,758 crore in May, followed by Rs 19,082 crore in June, Rs 12,628 crore in July, Rs 55,702 crore involving 21 deals in August, Rs 5,116 crore in September and Rs 4,818 crore, involving 31 M&A deals, in October, aggregating to Rs 1,29,061 crore, which is more than double the Rs 57,063 crore worth of deals clinched in the same period previous fiscal, says the report.

The CMIE M&A Database has captured 33 major share acquisitions in October alone, involving a cash outflow of Rs 4,818.3 crore. Out of these, eight were open offers amounting to Rs 328.4 crore, led by the 20 per cent open offer Piramal Healthcare announced. There were altogether five asset sales and 31 mergers during the month.