India Inc's appetite for mergers and acquisitions has seen total deal value nearly double in just two months of this year to about $37 billion from $20 billion in the entire 2006.
There were total 102 M&A deals worth $36.80 billion in January and February 2007 as against 480 deals for $20.30 billion in 2006, according to data complied by research and advisory firm Grant Thornton India.
The value of this year's deals is much larger as is evident from the fact that only 102 transactions were worth over $36 billion.
"This has been primarily achieved with some high value M&A deals in commodities (especially metals) and telecom," it said.
Grant Thorton said 2007 is going to see high levels of action in both M&A and private equity, as the year has started with a significant momentum.
There were 41 domestic deals with a total value of $0.62 billion. Besides, there were 21 in-bound cross-border deals worth $15.18 billion and 40 out-bound deals with a total value of $21 billion.
The significant outbound acquisitions by Indian companies in the first two months of 2007 include Tata-Corus deal, Hindalco's acquisition of Canadian company Novelis and Aban Lloyd's stake purchase in Norwegian firm Sinvest.
The most significant in-bound deal during the last two months has been Vodafone's acquisition of Hutch's stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd and Mittal Investments' stake in HPCL's Bhatinda refinery.
Interestingly, there have been 74 private equity deals during the first two months of 2007 with an announced value of $2.19 billion, the report said.
Besides, the deal value in commodity sector has increased to about $21 billion in the first two months of the year from $3.7 billion in 2005.
Other Indian companies in the steel, metal, energy and other sectors are exploring large international acquisitions and the research firm expects to see more M&A deals in the commodity sector in the current year.
