Kotak in alliance with GCA Savvian for M&A deals

Kotak Investment Banking, a leading investment banker, has entered into an alliance with GCA Savvian Corporation, a major investment banking unit from Japan to advise Indian and Japanese companies on cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Falguni Nayar, managing director and CEO of Kotak Investment Banking said Japanese companies are looking for strategic M&A opportunities in high growth markets and India has emerged as one of the preferred investment decisions.

"There is a strong strategic business fit between Japanese and Indian corporates and they can derive synergies from each other," she said.

Akihiro Watanabe, managing partner and founder, GCA Savvian said historically many Japanese companies had leaned towards the US markets for exports. But that model has collapsed. Besides, the domestic market in Japan has no room for growth and so they are looking to countries like India for business.

Earlier, the deal flow was high but not many deals could be struck due to expectations of high valuation. Now price of the target companies has gone down and thus become more attractive, he said.