India Inc's shopping spree for October remained unabated with 46 merger and acquisition transactions (M&A) worth over $530 million taking place during the period and the year-to-date deal touching a whopping $42.76 billion in value terms.

According to global consultancy firm Grant Thornton, there were 46 M&A deals worth $530 million in October 2010.

So far this year corporate India has announced 546 M&A deals worth $42,759 million -- the highest in the last two years both in terms of value as well as number of deals.

Outbound deals, wherein Indian companies acquired businesses outside India, were the flavour of the month as deals worth $390 million were struck in this space.

The total value of inbound deals where foreign companies acquired Indian businesses amounted to $100 million.

The total value of domestic deals in October 2010 was $40 million.

The major merger and acquisition deals in October include Fortis Healthcare's acquisition of Quality HealthCare for $195 million, followed by Venkateshwara Hatcheries' takeover of Blackburn Rovers for $68.09 million.

The top five M&A deals accounted for 78 per cent of the total M&A deal value, Grant Thornton said.

A sector wise analysis shows that Pharma, healthcare and biotech sector attracted the maximum deals as five transactions were struck in this space amounting to $250 million.

This was followed by banking and financial services ($68.39 million) and IT and ITeS ($56.22 million).

Meanwhile, the total value of M&A, PE (Private Equity) and QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement) deals in October stood at $1.88 billion.

While PE deals amounted to $310 million through 26 transactions, there were 10 Qualified Institutional Placements (QIP) valued at $1.04 billion during the period under review.

The primary market was also very active in October as 19 initial public offers valued at $1.22 billion were raised taking the total amount raised through IPO route during the January-October period to $3.10 billion.