Even as the number of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals reached a record high last year, a fall in deal sizes led to a 12 per cent decline in the total deal value to USD 46.8 billion, a report said today.
The current year looks promising for deals on stable macroeconomic environment but activity will be largely concentrated on the domestic front, consultancy firm EY said in a report.
The M&A deal volume shot up to a seven-year high of 1,022 for 2017, led by domestic deals in sectors like telecom, retail and consumer products and technology, it said.
However, by value terms, there was a decline.
"While there was an increase in number of deals, they were concentrated in the lower bands of around USD 20 million," said Amit Khandelwal, partner, EY.
Corporates held back from venturing into big ticket acquisitions, resulting in a fall in over USD 500 million deals to 13 from the 21 recorded in the year-ago period, according to the consultancy.
Regulatory issues also impacted the deal numbers, Khandelwal said, specifying "timeline of some of the big-ticket deals got stretched due to increased scrutiny by the regulators and complex deal structures."
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