The pace of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in calendar year 2008 declined by almost 28 per cent as the credit crisis checked companies' capacity to raise funds. Globally, 21,398 M&A deals worth $2.37 trillion were struck in the last nine months of 2008, compared with 24,848 deals worth $3.29 trillion in the previous comparable period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The value of Indian M&A activities declined by 25.33 per cent to $27.84 billion (1.18 per cent of global M&As) this year from $37.28 billion in 2007. The value of US mergers went down by 36.74 per cent, while those in Europe by 26.60 per cent. On the contrary, takeovers in the Asian market, excluding Japan, increased by 11.02 per cent to $367 billion in the period.
According to data compiled by Thomson Reuters, the energy and power sector topped the M&A chart with deals worth $9.40 billion in 2008, up 229.20 per cent over last year. The healthcare sector followed with deals worth $6.10 billion. The Daiichi-Ranbaxy deal was the major one in the sector with a transaction value of over $5 billion.
The biggest cross-border outbound deal in the year was ONGC Videsh's acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy Corp Plc for $2.61 billion, followed by Tata Motors' Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) acquisition for $2.30 billion. Other major such deals were InterGen's acquisition by GMR Infrastructure for $1.11 billion and General Chemical Industrial Products' acquisition by Tata Chemicals for $1.01 billion.
Cross-border inbound deals declined by 47.90 per cent, from $29 billion to $15 billion in the same period. Significant deals were – Daiichi Sankyo-Ranbaxy deal (over $5 billion), Emirates Telecom (Etisalat)-Swan Telecom deal ($900 million) and Providence Equity Partners-Aditya Birla Telecom ($640 million).