Japanese investors have arrived in full force: Kotak's Sourav Mallik
Japanese companies are here to stay and are long-term investors, says Sourav Mallik, managing director and deputy chief executive, Kotak Investment Banking.
Rising deal activity in India’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) space shows that domestic acquirers are firmly back in the saddle, even as Japanese players step up their presence in the country, Sourav Mallik, managing director and deputy chief executive of Kotak Investment Banking, told Mint in an interview.
From JSW Paints acquiring AkzoNobel to Torrent Group acquiring J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals to Bajaj Finance buying out Allianz, growth-hungry Indian business groups are now making substantive M&A moves, he said.
“We have seen that capital from global investors is headed towards India, and domestic capital continues to flow unabated. Domestic groups are getting stronger and stronger and becoming very active in M&A. They will continue growing via M&A, and I think M&A activity and volumes in calendar 2026 will surpass that in 2025," Mallik said.
For 2025, Kotak Mahindra Group’s investment banking arm led domestic banks in investment banking fees and ranked fourth overall, generating $77.4 million in revenues across equity, debt, and M&A deals.
Its notable transactions included KKR’s sale of JB Chemicals to Torrent Pharma ($1.4 billion), Bain Capital’s $1.1 billion investment in Manappuram Finance, Carlyle’s $400 million stake in Roop Automotive, and Ecom Express’ $165 million sale to Delhivery, among others.
“The deal activity is reasonably broad and wide. There are obviously the larger groups who are more active when it comes to M&A, but mid-sized businesses, too, have been throwing up deal opportunities, both as acquirers or targets. It is driven by business confidence, comfort around balance sheets, and availability of capital, both debt as well as equity," Mallik said.
M&As in India are driven by groups looking to enter new segments, hive off non-core businesses, or deepen penetration and market share in their existing businesses. In some cases, first-generation entrepreneurs are looking to exit the business for the lack of succession.
However, there are groups such as the Adani Group, Aditya BirlaGroup, JSW Group, Torrent Group, Nirma Group, among others, which have seen the next generation taking up the mantle. “We also see certain groups where the next generation is fully energized and is involved in the business. Those are the groups where you are seeing more aggression, more M&As," he added.
Sponsored by PE
Private equity (PE) investors have also become a force to reckon with. Driving not just private capital deals, these are the firms that are readying their portfolio firms for public market debuts. Sponsors, as the investment banking industry calls them, have become a big source of deal volume. From acquiring listed companies to listing their privately held firms, PE groups are very active in the deal-making space.
“We've seen that sponsors now have increased comfort around listed companies, and are becoming sole promoters of listed companies and are proactively taking control of the listed companies."
Global companies, too, are increasingly stepping up their pace of deal making in India. This year, on one hand, we saw global players coming in droves, on the other, firms taking some money off the table by selling partially or fully to leverage high valuations and deep liquidity pool in India.
Emirates NBD, the Middle Eastern banking group, picked up a controlling stake in RBL Bank in a $3 billion transaction. Schneider Electric, too, bought out Temasek Holdings in the joint venture in a $6.4 billion transaction. India saw 99 inbound transactions worth $28.9 billion and 135 outbound deals worth $16 billion in 2025, according to data from private company data platform Venture Intelligence.
“There are many global companies, due to their own global needs and requirements, who are rebalancing their portfolios and are optimizing the capital structure of their Indian businesses. We will expect to see that also continue to happen in the coming years, and also contribute to M&A and ECM (Equity Capital Markets) activity," Mallik added.
Anchored by Japan
However, what stands out is the heightened interest from Japanese multinationals in the country. This year alone, we saw three mega deals where groups such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. together pump in more than $7.2 billion in the country buying into Shriram Finance, Yes Bank and Avendus Group, respectively.
“They are here to stay and are long-term investors. They've been looking at India for a really, really long period of time. The covid-19 pandemic put a temporary pause in many of their thinking and planning. But we are seeing them make some big bets," Mallik said, adding: “I think it's clear that the mandate for Japanese companies from their investors and their boards is to go global and have a global footprint. It's taken them some time, and they've arrived in full force."
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