Inbound merger and acquisitions set to increase: Assocham

Strong financials of domestic companies and robust demand in sectors like telecom, pharma and capital goods will kickstart inbound merger and acquisition activities in India in the next six to nine months, an industry lobby report said.

Strong financials of domestic companies and robust demand in sectors like telecom, pharma and capital goods will kickstart inbound merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in India in the next six to nine months, an industry lobby report said on Thursday.

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The report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said: "Inbound M&As, which had witnessed a steep fall of 85 percent due to the global financial crisis, and consolidation deals are expected to show signs of revival by October-December period 2009."

Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said in the report: "Indian companies could attract greater number of inbound M&A deals as the equity valuations of certain sectors like telecom, pharma, and capital goods offer lucrative strategic option to bigger foreign companies."

In January-March 2009, the inbound M&A deals, which had the maximum share in total M&A deal size during October-December 2008, contracted by a whopping 85.28 percent.

The outbound M&A deals shrunk 48.62 percent as the number of deals declined from 28 in October-December 2008 to 16 in January-March 2009, the report said.

The Study also found that if it was the telecom sector that attracted the maximum share in the M&A deals in the last quarter of 2008, the pharmaceutical and IT sectors dominated the corporate M&A activities in the first three months of 2009.