Air India sale, Tatas' EV arm keep deal street busy with $9.2 bn fund flows

In October, 61 mergers and acquisitions worth $3.3 billion were announced

The Air India sale to the Tatas has helped the deal street sizzle in October which in total saw 221 deals worth USD 9.2 billion -- 24 per cent more than the money changed hands in the same month in 2020, according to an industry report.

According to Grant Thornton dealtracker report on Monday, October was encouraging, both in terms of deal volume and deal value, indicating the continuum in deal activities. While volume jumped two times over October 2020, in value terms it grew 24 per cent.

In October, 61 mergers and acquisitions worth USD 3.3 billion were announced of which as much as USD 2.4 billion were the Tatas paying the government for the national carrier Air India, and 160 private equity deals worth USD 5.9 billion, which was 62 per cent more than the year ago period, according to the data collated by the agency.

With 61 deals, M&As were the highest since 2015, up 62 per cent in volumes and 25 per cent in value.

The month also witnessed the birth of five new unicorns: Coinswitchkuber, insurance broker Acko General Insurance, fintech Faasoos, food tech player Licious, and edutech firm Vedantu.

A large series-A funding round with Credavenue raising USD 90 million was also announced in the month.

Of the total deals, M&As alone fetched USD 3.3 billion led by startups and IT sectors which continued to drive volumes at 24 per cent and 8 per cent respectively with an aggregate value of USD 391 million; hospitality and leisure, pharma and healthcare, e-commerce, retail and consumer sectors accounted for 32 per cent of the M&As. The biggest deal was the Tatas acquiring Air India for an aggregate value of USD 2.4 billion.

Domestic consolidation continued to dominate the M&A street with 79 per cent of the deals coming in from the domestic market, again thanks to the Air India deal.

On the private equity front, as many as 160 deals worth USD 5.9 billion were announced in October led by 14 high value investments in startups, which occupied 70 percent of volume.

While the deal volume almost doubled over October 2020, in value it fell 11 per cent owing to lower average deal size from USD 78 million in October 2020 to USD 37 million in October 2021. However, the month saw 14 high value investments, including Tata Motors' EV arm raising USD 1 billion.