Walmart's $16 bn Flipkart buy is biggest deal this year

US retailer Walmart's buying 77 per cent stake in Flipkart for USD 16 billion is the biggest acquisition by a company in India this year.

This is also Walmart's biggest acquisition which will help it compete with its US-based rival Amazon.

The biggest M&A deal in India however is the yet-to-be-completed merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to create India's largest telecom operator, surpassing Bharti Airtel. That deal, worth USD 23 billion, was announced last year.

In August last year, Rosneft and its partners completed a USD 12.9 billion acquisition of Essar Oil to gain control over a 20 million tonnes a year oil refinery and over 3,500 petrol pumps. This is the largest FDI into the country till that date and also the largest outbound investment from Russia.

In case of Flipkart, Walmart is buying into the Singapore-based holding company.

UK's BP Plc in 2011 bought 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas blocks, including eastern offshore KG-D6, of Reliance Industries for USD 7.2 billion.

India, Asia's third largest economy, needs foreign capital to boost infrastructure and sustain economic growth. According to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the total FDI investments in India during April-December 2017 stood at USD 35.94 billion.

Below are some of the major mergers and acquisitions in India in recent times (The list is not exhaustive):
* Nirma acquired Lafarge India for USD 1.4 billion in 2016