April sees merger and acquisition deals worth $6.9 billion: Grant Thornton

NEW DELHI: Merger and acquisition activities of Indian companies rose to $6.9 billion and witnessed 49 deals, including big-ticket Sun Pharma-Ranbaxy transaction, a Grant Thornton report said today.

The M&A market saw 42 deals worth $1.8 billion in the same month last year.

"The overall M&A market witnessed an upsurge this month with two deals valued at over a billion dollars each, 6 deals over $100 million and 5 deals between $50-100 million," Grant Thornton's latest Deal Tracker report said.

Domestic M&A deals have resurfaced with vigorous activities, both in terms of value and volume. The high value was largely due to $3.2 billion deal between Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy and the $1.4 billion Vodafone stake consolidation deal.

The domestic market has redeemed itself largely due to the $3.2 billion Sun Pharma-Ranbaxy deal and other large deals in the Banking and Real Estate space, the report said and added while inbound deals remained consistent, cross border deals have shown an overall uptrend contributed by growth in outbound deal values.

"The overall deal sentiment is definitely looking up and with the new Government formation; we expect the overall deal activity to rebound positively in the coming months," Grant Thornton India LLP Partner Raja Lahiri said.

Among the sectors, infrastructure, energy, consumer and financial services are expected to witness renewed activity, Lahiri added.

In the first four months of this year, the deal value stood at $13.7 billion through (362 deals) as compared to $10 billion (312 deals) in the same period a year ago.

The domestic M&A sphere has bounced back at $5 billion by way of 72 deals this year so far against $2 billion (79 deals) in 2013, despite volumes remaining consistent, reflecting larger ticket sizes in the current year.