Technology, manufacturing, media & entertainment, healthcare & life sciences and energy will remain top sectors that will see mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2017, according to a survey by KNAV, an international tax advisory.

“The largest percentage of respondents (22%) voted technology as the no1 industry of interest. This was followed by manufacturing (15%). The respondents also expected active acquisitions in media & entertainment (10%), healthcare & life sciences (9%) and energy (8%),” according to the KNAV report titled: India M&A expectations survey.

The respondents in the survey comprised of advisors, senior executives including CEOs and CFOs of companies whose revenue ranged from $1 mn to more than $ 1 bn.

According to the report about 70% of the respondents are also planning growth through inorganic expansion mainly M&A. While 30% of the respondents have plans of pursuing at least 1 to 2 deals and about 10% of the respondents plan on initiating 3-5 deals in next couple of years.

“There is a large appetite for smaller transactions valued up to $ 1 mn with 56% of respondents interested in the same. At the same time there is a continuous need for larger deals based on their requirements. Around 27% of the respondents stated that their companies would be interested in deals valued between $1-10 mn about about 13% would be interesw3ed in deals b3etwen $ 100100 mn,” the report added.

In line with the responds we continue to see smaller deals dominating the marketplace. Despite many structural improvements today’s economy is still uncertain and these smaller deals are easier to finance and integrate, the report added.