Indian companies continue to witness rise in deals: Grant Thornton

Mumbai: During February, Indian companies witnessed 113 deals worth $3.4 billion, an increase of 40% in terms of volume and around 36% in terms of deal value as compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Deal Tracker report by Grant Thornton India Llp.

Inbound deals continue to witness upward trend, led by a pharmaceutical deal in which US-based Mylan Inc. agreed to pay $800 million including contingent payments of $50 million to acquire certain female healthcare businesses of Famy Care Ltd. This was the fourth largest pharma deal in the country to date. Last month, three other deals valued over $100 million were announced, the report added.

In the private equity (PE) segment, transactions continue to be driven by e-commerce firms and PE investment activity witnessed 135% increase in volumes as compared to the previous period in February 2014. Though the deal value fell by 7%, during last month, PE firms invested $737 million in Indian companies as against $794 million during the corresponding period last year.

The largest transaction last month was Equis Funds Group’s investment in a real estate project of Bangalore-based Assetz Property Group. The fund invested $116 million according to the Deal Tracker data. Other deals include online recharge company Freecharge.in raising $80 million from Tybourne Capital, Valiant Capital, Sequoia Capital, Sofina and Ru-Net.

“Last month saw two listed companies raising capital through qualified institutional placement and collectively raising $425 million. February 2015 saw a 125% increase in domestic deal values,” the Deal Tracker report added.

Cross border transactions witnessed a fall of 65% in terms of volume but deal value has gone up by 36%. Off the 17 cross-border deals, eight deals were struck by Indian companies in foreign shores. The deal value for outbound transactions was recorded at $278 million as against $122 million last year in the same period.

Even during January, 118 deals were closed worth $3.4 billion, up by 36% in terms of deal volume and 112% in terms of value, as compared with the same month last year.

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