Landing at Rank 77 in the Ease of Doing Business Report issued by the World Bank, the year had been a blockbuster for the Indian economy. Mergers and Acquisitions in India cross the $100 Billion mark, led by corporate acquisitions as well as private equity-led buyouts.
The first half of the year showed robust growth. The investors continue to view the Indian market positively. The investment bankers in India have witnessed the biggest mergers & acquisitions boom in Indian history. Transactions worth $104.5 Billion in the year 2018, crushing the previous annual record. $16 Billion dollar worth of acquisition of e-commerce giant, Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd. by Walmart Inc. was the biggest-ever takeover by a foreign organization in India.
Raj Balakrishnan, the head of India Investment Banking, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) stated that the year 2018 had been a good one for the country. “We were part of some of the largest M&A and fund-raising transactions in India. We recently announced Unilever’s acquisition of GSK’s health food drinks business- the largest deal in India’s consumer sector, in which we advised Unilever. We also advised Schneider Electric on the acquisition of L&T’s electrical and automation business and worked for Actis Llp on its sale of Ostro Energy to Renew Power- both deals being the largest transactions in the respective sectors in India. We also closed the Vodafone-Idea merger, in which we were one of the advisors to Vodafone. We also helped Generali increase its stake in Future Generali India Insurance Co.”, stated Raj Balakrishnan.
Major giants like Amazon.com Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have been acquiring stakes in local companies to increase their presence in the Indian market. Additionally, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. by Warren Buffet agreed to invest in the company behind Paytm, the leader in the Indian digital payments market. Vodafone India and Idea Cellular completed a merger resulting in the creation of the largest telecom company in India. The two largest wireless carriers merged their operations in an attempt to topple Reliance Jio’s grip over the market, with the deal finalized at $23 Billion.
Balakrishnan claimed that the strategy for the year 2019 would be to continue working with their key clients on marquee transactions, both in India across the globe. Calling this a “responsible growth strategy”, the organization plans to focus on key clients and have a large share of the big ticket transactions with them. Balakrishnan presumed that the Buyout funds would continue to be very active as they have a lot of capital to deploy. The deal sizes in India have recorded an enormous growth.
Management Consulting firms in India work towards the promotion and enhancement of joint ventures in India, while creating a sustained deal-making boom look close to the Indian economy. The year, 2018 witnessed few of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in India and the same trend is expected to be followed in the year 2019. The upcoming year is estimated to cross the mark of $100 Billion once again, as stated by Sanjeev Krishnan, a Gurgaon-based partner at PwC India.
Ref Links-
https://www.arabianbusiness.com/equities/404034-india-set-for-100bn-plus-ma-deals-in-2018
https://qrius.com/india-rakes-in-the-deals-as-2018-witnesses-a-boom-in-mergers-and-acquisitions/
