How much did India Inc shop in 2006?

Whether it was the race for Corus or the hunt for Hutch, 2006 was a busy year with corporate India cutting nearly 500 M&A deals. CNBC-TV18 shares with domain-b exclusive snippets of a Grant Thornton study on deals in 2006.

Indian corporates spent $ 28 billion on mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals in 2006 — a 52 per cent increase over the $18.35 billion spent in 2005. According to a study by market research agency Grant Thornton, 2006 was one of the busiest years for India Inc.

Harish H V, partner, corporate finance, Grant Thornton says, "I would call it a boom year for M&A in 2006 compared to the previous year. We have seen substantial growth in the number of transactions as well as in terms of value. We have seen almost a doubling of the number of transactions from about 400 to 700 this year. We have seen almost a 60 per cent growth in value."

There were over 480 M&A deals with an announced value of $20.3 billion as against 343 deals at $16.32 billion in 2005. Of this, 214 were domestic deals at $4.99 billion and 266 cross-border deals at $15.31 billion. 190 of the cross border deals were outbound with Indian companies acquiring businesses abroad and 76 inbound deals brought in close to $5.4 billion in investments. 2006 also saw 302 private equity deals at $7.86 billion as against 124 deals at $2.03 billion in 2005.

"In terms of numbers, clearly IT and ITeS led the way. Pharma has fallen back compared to the previous year. In terms of value the telecom sector usually tops as the size of each deal is rather large," says Harish H V.

And this is excluding the Tata-Corus deal. If that and the Hutchison-Essar deal come through, India Inc will have crossed last years' figures with just two transactions.