India's Inbound M&A volume has surged to $23.4 billion this year with the United Kingdom emerging as the top acquiror into India.

According to global deal tracking firm Dealogic, India inbound M&A volume has surged to $23.4 billion till last week, slightly behind the record volume announced in the same period of 2007.

The United Kingdom has emerged as the top acquiror into India with deals worth $15 billion, much more than the corresponding period last year, when the year-to-date inbound deal volume stood at $151 million, the report

BP's $9 billion bid for 23 oil and gas blocks from Reliance Industries in February was the most significant transaction by the United Kingdom into India.

The top acquirer nations into India so far this year was the UK , which was responsible for 64 per cent of inbound M&As, followed by the United States (17 per cent), Germany (6 per cent), Japan (4 per cent), Denmark (3 per cent).

Though year-on-year there has been an increase in inbound M&A volume so far this year, on a quarter on quarter basis there has been a significant decline.

India inflow M&A volume totalled to $3.3 billion in the second quarter of this year, down a whopping 83 per cent from the record quarterly volume of $20.1 billion achieved in the first quarter of 2011, Dealogic said.

Meanwhile, the equity capital market (ECM) volume for India so far this year stood at $7.8 billion, almost half of the record high achieved in the same period under consideration in 2010 at ($15.4 billion).

Deal activity has also dropped to 55 deals in this year so far, a 40 per cent decline year-on-year, Dealogic said.

The share of initial public offers in the India ECM volume stood at 9.8 per cent, while follow-n offers accounted for 81.2 per cent.

The report further noted that the Indian core investment banking revenue reached $271 million so far this year - down 24 per cent from the year-to-date record achieved in 2010 ($368 million).