India Inc's Oct M&A, PE deal tally at USD 5.5 billion: Report

Corporate India's merger and acquisitions (M&A) and private equity (PE) deal volumes increased by 11 per cent in October, says a Grant Thornton report.

The deal value, however, rose marginally to USD 5.5 billion in October over the same period last year.

Rapid advancement in technology and the government's constant efforts to improve ease of doing business also supplemented the uptrend in deal activity, according to Grant Thornton's PE Dealtracker report for October 2018.

"October 2018 reported 103 M&A and PE transactions with a reported value of USD 5.5 billion. M&A transaction values witnessed a decline by about USD 1.1 billion, which was set off by USD 1.2 billion increase in PE transaction values," said Pankaj Chopda, Director, Grant Thornton India LLP.

PE transactions for October 2018 soared to USD 2.8 billion from USD 1.6 billion in the same month last year, although transaction volumes remained muted at around 57-58 deals, the report said.

"Couple of large ticket transactions in the hospitality and leisure sector and to start-ups catering to the aforesaid sector have been the deal value drivers. Real Estate and BFSI were the other sectors that witnessed good traction from the PEs," Chopda added.

"PE investments witnessed an upward trend in terms of values recording a 12-month high of USD 2.8 billion. This was mainly driven by six high value investments contributing 80 per cent of total PE deal values," the Grant Thornton report added.

Exhibiting the trend of the last four years, October was dominated by investments in start-ups, which accounted for 57 per cent of the total investment volumes.

So far in 2018, there have been deals worth USD 97 billion across 1,089 M&A and PE transactions, it said.

There were 679 private equity investments recorded valued at USD 17.4 billion.

However, PEs remained cautioned on making big ticket investments with muted deal values compared to year-till-date 2017, the report added.

"... considering the time proximity to the National elections, cautious optimism may be the approach while evaluating every transaction," Chopda said.