India receives $ 400 million merger and acquisition investments from South East Asia

SINGAPORE: Nearly USD 400 million of investment from South East Asia has gone into India through the merger and acquisition route in the first two and a half months of this year, a 30-40 per cent increase over the same period last year, a senior industry analyst here said today.

"If the trend of the first 2-1/2 months is maintained, it would be 30-40 per cent increase in M&A investment this year over 2014," said Vishal V Thapliyal, managing director of advisory and M&A at PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance Pte Ltd in Singapore.

"Based on the trend, this year is expected to be much better in M&A term than 2014," Thapliyal told PTI about the potential investments.

"We also believe there is going to be a quite a bit of consolidation within India, especially in the telecoms and logistics sectors among others," he said, after addressing a forum on 'Future of India: Potential and Prospects'.

The forum was organised by the High Commission of India. In his address to the forum, Thapliyal said more and more investors are discussing investment opportunities in India than before, given the improving regulatory framework in the country.

"There is a lot more investors' interest in India. India is back on the radar. These are early days but positive trends," he stressed.

Sanjeev Bajaj, chief executive officer in India for ANZ banking group, also highlighted the investment potential in India, pointing out, "As we see positive returns in real terms, we see a lot more interest coming back to India."

There is a lot of investment looking at the right opportunities in India, according to Bajaj.

Though there were overall growing confidence in India, speakers and delegates at the forum still called for more intensive development of infrastructure across the country which will help derive the annual economic growth to 9 per cent a year.

Achieving the winning leap means finding solutions to some of India's most persistent problems, added Shashank Tripathi, Strategy Leader at PWC India, a unit of the international consultancy group PWC.

Tripathi presented PWC's report 'Future of India: The Winning Leap' which highlighted the potential developments in 10 sectors: Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Retail, Agriculture, Power, Financial services, Urbanisation, Digital Connectivity and Physical connectivity.

Speakers at the forum also called for international techniques and expertise, along with investments, for supporting developments in India.