M&A deals down 9% to $54.7 bn in 2017, telecom, tech grab lion's share

Overall telecom deal value up 28.4x to $20.4 bn; count rises from three in 2016 to 11 in 2017

India’s M&A deals dropped nine per cent in value terms to $54.7 billion in 2017, from $59.7 billion in 2016. The number of deals also shrank to 379 from 421.

According to Mergermarket data, telecommunications, technology and financial services took the lion's share in terms of deal value, which rose the the case of all three sectors.

The overall deal value in telecommunications was up a staggering 28.4x to $20.4 billion from $718 million, with deal count rising from three in 2016 to 11 in 2017. The sector contributed 37.2 per cent to the country's total deal value, up a significant 1.2