Indian MNCs on a shopping spree for companies abroad

Nisha Das
21 August 2004

Indian MNCs are on a shopping spree for companies globally. After acquiring over 75 firms in 2003, the Indian corporates are now in the process of expanding their mergers and acquisition activities to Spain, Brazil, South America and Europe.

Merchant bankers working on some Indian assignments said that the sectors bullish on going global include auto, pharma, infotech, chemicals, light engineering, and entertainment.

The M&A (mergers and acquisitions) service of the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) reported that investment abroad by Indian companies in 2002-03 was $1,048 million. In 2003, there were 75 cross border M&A acquisitions by Indian firms, up from 36 deals in 2002.

Indian firms have about 440 investments / joint ventures in the UK, mostly technology-oriented. India is the eighth largest investor in UK. In Singapore there are 1,441 Indian companies, 450 of which are technology enterprises. The top 92 Indian-American owned companies in the US generated business of $2.2 billion and provided full-time employment to about 19,000 in 2002. Indian companies have acquired 120 foreign firms in the period 2001-2003 worth $1.6 billion.

Seven Indian companies are listed on the NYSE and three on NASDAQ. There are over 15 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. In January 2004, the government removed the $100 million cap on foreign investment by Indian companies and raised it to the net worth of the companies.