JOIN USThe significant increase in activity is driven by some of large deals including merger of Reliance Infratel’s tower assets with GTL Infrastructure for US$10.86 billion, Bharti Airtel’s US$10.7 billion acquisition of Zain’s African assets and Abbott’s acquisition of domestic formulation business of Piramal Healthcare for around US$3.72 billion.
Major sector
The largest contributor has been the telecom sector followed by several others such as pharma/ healthcare, banking and financial services, metals and ores, the study notes. Interestingly, seven deals have been announced already which have are valued billion-dollar-plus —which is a record for first six months of a year.
Another report from VCCEdge, financial research platform of VCCircle.com, states M&A deal value during this April-June period touched US$24.8 billion against US$2.8 billion in the year-ago period.
“The second quarter of this year saw some big tickets deals, which sent the total M&A deal value soaring. This signaled the return of investor confidence and liquidity to the market,” the VC Edge report notes.
In June, total M&A and PE (including qualified institutional placement) deals were valued at US$13.74 billion (67 deals) compared to US$1.38 billion (43 deals) and in the same month of 2009, says Grant Thornton report.
Further, total value of outbound deals (domestic firms acquiring businesses outside the country) was US$0.13 billion (17 deals) in June. While, total value of inbound deals (foreign companies or their arms acquiring domestic businesses) was US$0.41 billion (6 deals) in June. The Grant Thornton report says most prominent region where outbound acquisitions have seen highest include Africa, followed by Belgium, Britain and the US. The largest acquirer of Indian businesses has been the US so far this year, in terms of both volume and value, it added.
Major strikes
Reliance Infratel: US$10.86 billion buy of GTL Infra
Bharti Airtel: US$10.7 billion buy of Zain’s African biz
Abbott: US$3.72 billion buy of Piramal Healthcare biz