M&A activity declines 34% during 2009
Thursday January 14, 2010 , 2 min Read
Deal activity however picked up in second half of year
During 2009, Indian companies were involved in a total of 356 M&A deals, down 34% from 2008, according to a study by Venture Intelligence (http://www.ventureintelligence.in), a research service focused on Private Equity and M&A transaction activity in India. These figures were lower than that for 2008, which witnessed a total of 543 M&A deals (including 265 deals with an announced value of $26.4 billion). However, M&A activity in the second half of 2009 which witnessed 204 deals, was higher compared to H1 '09 which had witnessed a total of 152 M&A deals.
In the largest M&A deal by announced value, UltraTech Cement merged Samruddhi Cement with itself to form India’s largest cement company. This was followed by ONGC Videsh acquiring UK-listed Imperial Energy, which has oil assets in Russia, for $1.9 billion and Sanofi-Aventis’ acquisition of Hyderabad based Shantha Biotechnics for $625 million.
Source: Venture Intelligence
Over 56% of the deals in 2009 were domestic acquisitions, as against the 43% in 2008. Indian companies cut down on their global acquisitions drastically executing just 85 outbound transactions in 2009 as compared to the 230 in the previous year.
The US was the most preferred destination for Indian companies which acquired 22 American companies in 2009. The US was followed by the UK and Australia (with 9 deals each). The acquirers in 28 of the 70 inbound deals during 2009 were US-based companies, followed by German firms with ten deals and French firms with eight deals.
The IT & ITES and Manufacturing industries accounted for most number of acquisitions during 2009 contributing 22% and 18% respectively. Healthcare, Energy and BFSI were the next most active industries for M&A activity.
About Venture Intelligence
Venture Intelligence, a division of Chennai-based TSJ Media Pvt. Ltd., is the leading source of information on private equity and M&A transactions in India. For more information, please visit http://www.ventureintelligence.in
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