Adani's $10.5-bn Holcim acquisition doubles India Inc's deal value in May'

India Inc's deal value more than doubled to USD 19.1 billion across 190 transactions in May 2022, mainly helped by the USD 10.5-billion acquisition of global cement major Holcim by Adani Group, a report said on Monday.

The overall deal activity -- which includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity landscape and public market activity like IPOs -- stood at USD 7.965 billion a year ago, the report by consultancy firm Grant Thornton Bharat said.

However, when compared to April, the overall activity by value was down 59 per cent because the month recorded the USD 40 billion merger between HDFC Bank and HDFC, the report said.

Apart from the Adani's buy of ACC and Ambuja Cements from Holcim, May 2022 also witnessed a USD 2 billion investment in Viacom18 by Reliance and Bodhi Tree, the report said, adding that there were 13 other high-value deals of over USD 100 million aggregating to USD 5.1 billion during the month.

From a deal volume perspective, the number of transactions stood at 190 in May as compared to 120 in the year-ago period, it said, adding that the numbers were only 3 per cent higher when compared to April.

"Start-up, e-commerce and IT-led the deal volumes for the month, while manufacturing, media and entertainment and energy topped the overall value," the firm's partner Shanthi Vijetha said.

On the merger and acquisition side, there were 40 transactions in May 2022, aggregating to USD 11.9 billion and more than a fourth of those came from the startup sector, which witnessed 11 deals valued at USD 70 million.

Private equity investments witnessed record values and volumes at USD 7.2 billion across 150 deals, which was a 169 per cent higher in terms of values and an 81 per cent surge in deal volumes, it said.