PE, M&A deals up 55% in October: Grant Thornton Dealtracker
153 PE and M&A deals were closed in October, adding up to a total of $4.2 billion, compared with 98 deals worth $2.69 billion last year
Mumbai: Both the value and number of deals struck in October jumped more than 55% from a year ago, driven by an increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during the month, according to the Grant Thornton India Llp Dealtracker.
As many as 153 private equity (PE) and M&A deals were closed during the month, adding up to a total of $4.2 billion. In October 2014, 98 deals worth $2.69 billion were struck.
The value of M&A deals surged three times to $3.14 billion compared with October 2014, primarily due to big-ticket deals closed during the month. Seven deals valued over $100 million each and one deal worth $1 billion were reported in October.
Among PE deals, even as deal volume witnessed a jump of 73% to 95 deals in October, the value of deals fell 40% to $1.04 billion due to the shrinking deal size, said Grant Thornton.
“October witnessed a total deal value of around $ 4.2 billion across over 150 transactions, which is a high growth of over 50% in value and volume terms as compared to same period last year. This growth is mainly driven by inbound transactions, which contributed $ 1.6 billion across 12 transactions clocking a growth of over seven times in value from October 2014," said Prashant Mehra, partner at Grant Thornton India Llp.
American Tower Corp.’s acquisition of 51% stake in Viom Networks Ltd for $1.19 billion, Carnival Group’s acquisition of commercial real estate property (Elante Mall, Hyatt luxury hotel and office premises with central courtyard) for $267 million and Aster DM Healthcare’s 57% stake acquisition in Sanad Hospital for $250 million, were among the top three M&A deals in October.
Since the start of the year, M&A deals worth $28.79 billion (across 486 deals) have been recorded, up by 5% from $27.51 billion worth of M&A deals (across 476 deals) closed during the same period last year.
However, year to date, PE deals are up 39% at $13.83 billion. The number of PE deals struck is up 74% to 863 deals so far this year from 497 deals in the same period last year.
PE deal activity in 2015 has been led by sectors such as IT & ITES (information technology & information technology-enabled services), energy and natural resources, manufacturing, banking and financial services, telecom and pharma.
Renew Power Venture’s $265 million fund raise from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Goldman Sachs and The Global Environment Fund was the biggest PE deal in October. General Atlantic’s investment of $173 million in financial services firm IIFL Wealth Management Ltd and Apax Partners’ investment of $129 million in Zensar Technologies Ltd were the other top deals last month.
IT & ITES continues to be the preferred sector for private investments, with 67% of total deal volume, the report said.
“Within this sector, the e-commerce space witnessed more than 50% investments in the current month," the report said.
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