M&A deal tally reaches $28 billion this year: Mergermarket

NEW DELHI: The country's M&A activity rebounded strongly in the third quarter of this year, wherein USD 9 billion-worth of deals were announced, taking the total deal tally so far this year to USD 28 billion, says a survey.

According to the mergermarket India M&A Round-up, the third quarter of this year witnessed USD 9 billion-worth of deals, a whopping jump of 310 per cent compared to the previous quarter of 2012 (April-June).

Aggregate deals during the first nine months of this year stood at USD 28 billion, just 3.6 per cent shy of the Q1-Q3 2011 total deal value.

Deal volumes exhibited a similar trend, with the Q1-Q3 2012 total of 184 deals representing a decrease of just 8.5 per cent from the 205 deals registered corresponding period a year ago, mergermarket said in a release.

Though on a year-on-year basis, the inbound and outbound deal values for the first nine months of 2012 was lower by 52.7 per cent and 29.3 per cent, respectively, the transaction levels relatively improved in the third quarter.

In the third quarter, cross-border M&A recovered slightly, mustering USD 6.3 billion of inbound M&A, the highest quarterly total since Q3 of 2011. Outbound activity stood at USD 2 billion, the best quarterly total since Q1 of 2011 which saw USD 2.4 billion of overseas acquisitions by Indian bidders.

A sector wise analysis shows that energy, mining and utilities commanded 38.1 per cent of total M&A value in the first half of 2012, driven mainly by the Sesa Goa-Sterlite restructuring.

In terms of deal numbers, industrials and chemicals continues to dominate M&A deal volumes, along with the pharma, medical and biotech and business services sectors.

Morgan Stanley retained top spot in the financial adviser league tables with eight deals worth USD 12.1 billion, while, Ernst and Young topped the financial advisers' rankings in terms of volume, having advised on 12 transactions this year, the report said.

Data for the above report was based on announced deals of over USD 5 million. While, deals with undisclosed deal values are included where the target's turnover exceeds USD 10 million.

Moreover, all data excludes minority stake deals (10 per cent - 30 per cent) where the dominant target geography is Asia-Pacific and the deal value is less than USD 100 million, mergermarket said.