Deal activity rises 30% in first quarter of calendar year: Grant Thornton

Mumbai: Corporate deal activity in India rose almost 30% by value to $8.2 billion in the January-March quarter of 2015 from $6.4 billion in the year-ago period, according to Grant Thornton India Llp’s deal tracker report released on Wednesday.

Private equity (PE) investments increased 30% by value to $2.6 billion from $2 billion and the number of deals rose 67% to 219 from 131, the report said. “The quarter had four investments worth over $100 million each and eight worth over $50 million each,” the report said.

Overall merger and acquisitions (M&A) value rose by 26% over the first quarter of 2014, driven largely by in-bound deals. Twenty-nine in-bound M&A deals worth $3.5 billion were signed in the quarter. Overall, 131 deals worth almost $5.6 billion were reached in the quarter to March-end from 126 deals worth $4.4 billion a year ago.

Information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITeS), and the pharma and healthcare sectors drove both M&A and PE deal activity. “E-commerce continued to garner multimillion dollar investments coupled with big ticket consolidations amongst players,” the report said.

Notable strategic deals during the quarter were those between Harman International Industries and Symphony Teleca Corporation ($780 million), and Alibaba Group and One97 Communications Ltd ($575 million).

Key PE investments during the quarter were TPG Capital’s investment in Manipal Health Enterprises ($150 million), and Equis Funds Group’s investment in Assetz Property ($116 million).

The quarter also saw 14 qualified institutional placements (QIPs) raising $944 million and nine initial public offerings raising $118 million.

Prashant Mehra, a partner at Grant Thornton India Llp, said deal-making may be fuelled by the upcoming corporate financial results, which will reflect the effectiveness of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government that came to power in May 2014 on the promise of reviving economic growth and investments.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.