India the market to be in, say mid-market i-bankers

Spurred by faster economic growth and increasing appetite among entrepreneurs, India will witness a boom in mid-market M&A deals and is going to "be the market to be in", feel a number of investment bankers from various countries.
"Between 2010 and 2015, there were 500 deals worth 5 billion euros between India and Europe, facilitated by mid-market i-bankers. Two-thirds of these deals, below the ticket size of 50 million euros, were inbound while the rest were outbound from India.
"On an average 100 such deals happen a year....India is going to be the market to be in. This year also, the average deal numbers remain a tad over 100," said Stas Michael, managing director of Mergers Alliance, an international body of mid-sized i-bankers which has membership from over 25 countries.

"We can expect a boom in India as we witnessed in early 2000. Mid-market focused bankers worldwide could end this year with better deal closures, if the league tables are any indication.
"With current decisive government at helm, India is positioned as the bright spot today and M&A activities will gain further momentum in the early part of the next financial year, when India is poised to grow even faster. GST is a sure enabler for this," Michael told PTI here today.
He is in town as part of Mergers Alliance's bi-annual two-day conference, being hosted by domestic i-banker Singhi Advisors which holds 15 per cent stake in the global body.

The conference, involving investment bankers from over 20 countries and senior officials of the Indian industry, will look into the growth prospects of India as a destination for M&A activities.

Mahesh Singhi, managing director of Singhi Advisors, said
the real impact of the boom should start reflecting on the ground from the next fiscal. In the M&A space, India has braved past the global headwinds to record the highest ever performance since 2011, he said.
"One of the major triggers is the heightened domestic deals, riding on a shopping spree by corporate India, seeing great opportunity in acquiring good quality assets owned by some groups under financial stress as well as some marquee deals in pharma, IT and consumer space coupled with industrials.

"That precisely makes the mid-size bankers bullish about the future. There will be enough in the cup for all i-bankers, whether small, mid-size or big, in the coming months. A highly positive deal outlook will further prompt foreign i-bankers to re-focus on India," he said.
Keith Pickering, the British partner of the Alliance and partner of Catalyst Corporate Finance, said tech, BPO and healthcare sectors could see inbound activity from global acquirers.
"I believe industrial and building/consumer products sectors are more likely to be sectors in which Indian companies will look for overseas acquisition opportunities," he said.
"Significant acquisition opportunities exist in Britain market sub 100-million pounds in value - there are a vast number of strong, differentiated, high margin, high growth businesses at this level. We are focused on helping Indian businesses buy in Britain," he added.

Sean Yoshizawa, managing director of the Tokyo-based Yamaichi Securities, said Japanese companies are very bullish about India as the political and economic cooperation between Tokyo and Delhi improves.
"Japan Inc is keen on snapping up Indian assets in the consumer, e-commerce and IT space apart from food and beverages. I see great scope going forward," Yoshizawa said.