Stable government and development oriented policies have raised the investment sentiments in India. We have dominated the Asia Pacific Merges and Acquisitions (M&A) market and have cracked several high-value deals last year. As per a Mergermarket M&A trend report, in India the M&A activity reached $64.5 billion in 2016, which is about 8.8% of the whole of Asia Pacific deals. This is the highest since 2007. M&A deals involving Indian companies went up by 82% in the first half of 2016 with most deals going through between the online businesses. Clarity on taxation, introduction of several reforms and favorable macroeconomic factor like depreciating currency encouraged investment into the country in 2016.

The new trend in India Inc. is inorganic growth that is growing by acquisitions of other business giving M &A has got a solid footing in this economy. Of late there have been lots of mergers and acquisitions in the telecom, cement, banking, power and insurance sectors. Some of the notable deals in the last one year are amalgamation of Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited (ABNL) with Grasim Industries Limited (Grasim), Cairn India Limited (Cairn) merged with the metals and mining giant Vedanta Limited (Vedanta), Reliance communication with Aircel and Rosneft Oil Companies acquiring ESSAR Oil.

The good times for M&A is expected to continue in the coming years as well and the total value of M&A transactions in India (domestic and inbound) is expected to more than double to US$49.3 billion in 2019, as per the report from global law firm, Baker McKenzie.

Nisha had an engaging conversation on the challenges and opportunities for M&A in India with Topsy Mathew, Managing Director, Head of Corporate Finance - Asia & South Asia Standard Chartered Bank, Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Renuka Ramnath, Founder & CEO Multiples Alternate Asset Management. The crux of the discussion was about carious themes pertaining to mergers and acquisitions.