India Inc's Aug M&A deal tally at $ 3.5 billion: Grant Thornton

NEW DELHI: Corporate India announced merger and acquisition deals worth $ 3.5 billion, taking the total value of M&A activities in the first eight months of 2013 to nearly $ 19 billion, says a report by Grant Thornton.

According to the assurance, tax and advisory firm, the first eight months of this year saw M&A deals worth over $ 18.95 billion, registering a decline of 27.35 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago, when deals worth $ 26.09 billion were announced.

"Deal activity remains moderated in YTD (year-to-date) 2013 (January-August) over YTD2012," Grant Thornton India LLP Partner (Transaction Advisory Services) Raja Lahiri said.

Going forward, however, the outlook looks bullish and there are significant chances of deal activity in export oriented sectors like information technology and pharma.

"The recent FX devaluation is clearly helping the earnings of some of the export oriented sectors like IT and Pharma and augurs well for inbound deals. In my view, we should see action in some of these sectors going forward," Lahiri said.

The rupee is currently, hovering around 63 against the US dollar. The local currency had sunk to an all-time low of 68.85 on August 28.

The top five M&A deals accounted for 93 per cent of the total M&A deal values.

A sector-wise analysis shows that the oil and gas sector dominated the deal activity in the month of August as it accounted for 75 per cent of the M&A deal tally for August.

ONGC Videsh Ltd's acquisition of 10 per cent stake of Rovuma Area 1 Offshore Block for $ 2.64 billion was termed as the deal of the month, the report said.

Other major deals of August include, Singapore-based SingTel's 4 per cent stake acquisition in Bharti Airtel in an all-cash deal worth $ 301 million (about Rs 1,859 crore).