Domestic M&As up 2.6 times

Domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&As) rose 2.6 times to $31.8 billion in the first nine months of 2016 from the year-ago period, according to a report by tracking firm Mergermarket.

“In July-September, India experienced its highest ever quarterly value on Mergermarket record (since 2001). A total of 100 deals were announced amounting to $27.7 billion during the three-month period. This represented 14.1 per cent of the total Asia-Pacific deal value, and was 212.7 per cent higher than the previous quarter ($8.8 billion). Due to this record performance, the year-to-date value of India-targeted M&A activity ($46 billion) has exceeded any annual value on record through a total of 281 deals,” Mergermarket said.

The growth during the September quarter was due to big transactions, especially in the telecommunications sector. These include Grasim Industries’ $8-billion acquisition of Aditya Birla Nuvo and the $4.8-billion merger of Aircel and Reliance Communications.

Private equity (PE) buyouts have declined. So far this year there have been 61 PE buyouts worth $5.3 billion against 90 deals worth $ 7.2 billion during the same period last year.

The deal value in the pharmaceuticals industry in July-September rose 13 times to $2.3 billion from $171 million in the previous quarter and 5.6 times from the corresponding quarter of 2015.

Inbound deal activity increased 6.9 per cent to $14.2 billion, the highest during the first nine months of a calendar year since 2011. Investments from the US to India were down 34.2 per cent to $4.5 billion.

India is expecting more investments from China.

PVR, the country’s largest cinema chain, is being targeted by the Chinese Dalian Wanda Group. If the deal goes through, it will be the largest cinema deal in India.