‘Art Of The Deal’: Private Equity, M&A Deals In India Reach Record High, Surpass $110 Billion In 2018

Deals across private equity (PE) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in India have reached a record high, with their total value for 2018 surpassing $100 billion for the first time, according to the ‘Annual Dealtracker 2018’ report published by Grant Thornton, reports The New Indian Express.

The report reveals that M&A transactions stood at $90 billion for the year while PE deals contributed another $20 billion to the total.

The biggest deals of 2018 were Walmart-Flipkart, Bharti-Infratel-Indus Towers, ONGC-HPCL, Tata-Steel-Bhushan Steel and Hindustan Unilever–Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare, among others. The Telecom sector made up the greatest chunk of the deals with 21 per cent in the M&A category, while startups also witnessed a high volume of transactions.

Prospects for 2019 may be somewhat tepid in the first two quarters, but deals are likely to pick up pace through the year due to strong fundamentals and more deals in the pipeline.

Major factors likely to affect this year’s numbers will be continuing reforms, rate of their implementation, and the new policies after the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.