Notwithstanding the ongoing global credit crisis, India Inc's appetite for mergers and acquisitions remained strong with 35 deals, both domestic and cross-border, worth $3.69 billion being signed in September.
The number of deals were only 31 in August this year, but the value was just a notch higher at $4.63 billion than in September this year, international accounting and business advisory firm Grant Thornton said in its monthly report.
"We expect the drive to continue in the near future, especially with significant opportunities to acquire overseas business at lower values and necessity to look at inorganic growth as an important strategy considering that the organic growth is expected to slow down," C G Srividya, Partner, specialist advisory services, Grant Thornton, said.
During July-September period of the current year, Indian company's had done more acquisitions valued at $9.2 billion than in the same period in 2007 at $5.3 billion.
The largest M&A activity during September was by the Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo, increasing its stake through open offer in Ranbaxy Laboratories to 58 per cent for $1.7 billion.
Emirates Telecommunications Corporation's $0.9 billion investment to pick up 45 per cent stake in Swan Telecom was the second highest deal in September, the report said.
Out of the 35 deals signed during September, 26 were cross-border deals ($3.65 billion) and the remaining are domestic ones ($0.04 billion).
With this the total number of deals during the first nine months of the current calendar year stands at 381 against 527 in the corresponding period last year.
In all, 676 M&A deals were signed by Indian companies during 2007.