India Inc's Jan-Jul deal tally at USD 74 bn: Report

Corporate India announced merger and acquisition deals worth USD 8.7 billion in July this year, following which the deal tally for the first seven months of this year stood at USD 74.16 billion, says a report.

According to Grant Thornton's M&A Dealtracker there were 49 M&A deals worth USD 8.71 billion in July, a nearly 22 fold increase on a year-on-year basis, driven by two large outbound acquisitions valuing over USD 1 billion each.

In the January-July period, there were 284 M&A deals worth USD 74.18 billion, primarily on account of revived domestic and cross-border deal activity, witnessing an increase of over seven times in deal values.

The year so far has registered 12 deals in the billion-dollar category and 33 deals valued at and over USD 100 million each.

The telecom, e-commerce, manufacturing, energy, agriculture, banking and IT sectors led the deal activity, capturing 94 per cent of the total deal values in the January-July period.

The start-up sector dominated the deal volumes with a 21 per cent share followed by manufacturing and IT together contributing 25 per cent.

"The deal activity is expected to be bullish for the rest of the year. M&A activities will be primarily driven by a strategic push in the board rooms to achieve scale within both domestic markets and global markets and also to increase product offerings in line with technological developments. Conclusion of the IBC process will also catalyse the deal momentum," Pankaj Chopda, Director, Grant Thornton India LLP said.

In July UPL Ltd's acquisition of Arysta Lifescience Inc for USD 4.2 billion was the largest outbound deal in the agriculture sector and otherwise till date. The sector led the deal activity with 48 per cent of the total M&A deal values.

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The month of July also recorded seven deals valued at and above USD 100 million each.

The report noted that the absence of big ticket deals in July 2017 on account of GST implementation also supported the surge in the deal values in 2018.