India sees PE, M&A deals worth $52 billion so far this year

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Private equity investments as well as merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in the country have witnessed consistent growth so far this year, as deals worth over $52 billion have been announced in this space.

According to data compiled by research firm VCCEdge, the total private equity investments till September this year stood at $7.18 billion, while M&A activity for the first three quarters of 2010 reached at $45.1 billion.

In the month of September, the total M&A deal value amounted to $11.7 billion. Though the M&A activity in September noticed a drop on a quarter-on-quarter basis, but has quadrupled from last year’s level, the report said.

The most active sectors in terms of deal value was energy, which saw deals worth $4.6 billion, followed by healthcare ($1.8 billion) and industrials ($1.7 billion), and materials ($1.6 billion).

“Together they accounted for 85 per cent of the total deal value so far this year,” the VCCEdge report said.

An analysis of the M&A deals shows that outbound deals were the flavour of the quarter, as these deals witnessed a huge jump in terms of deal value at $4.39 billion, up nearly 17 times than last year.

The value of domestic deals almost doubled to $2.79 billion in September quarter, compared to last year, while the value of inbound deals stood at $3.16 billion, as against $0.97 billion in Q3 2009.

In the private equity segment for the quarter ended September 2010, the total announced deal value was $2.89 billion, an over two fold jump from the year ago period.

The deal count also went up to 109 deals from 77, in Q3 2009.

The average private equity deal value for the September quarter stood at $38 million. Big ticket deals constituted 52 per cent of the total private equity capital invested in Q3 2010.

A sectoral breakdown shows financials were the most sought after sector, as it received an investment of $922 million, followed by utilities ($502 million) and Industries ($452 million).

Together these three accounted for 65 per cent of total private equity deal value during the quarter.

Real estate stocks to bounce back

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With rising property prises, the BSE Realty Index is likely to break its year-long lull and outshine others on the Dalal Street in the coming months, say analysts.

“The realty index is likely to grab the centre stage in the comings two months, riding high on the spurt in property prices and liquidity in the market,” CNI Research CMD Kishore P Ostwal said.

The sectoral index had touched a 52-week high on October 21, 2009. However, since then, it has been an underperformer among its peers like auto and consumer durables indices, which recently touched their year highs after the Sensex crossed the psychological 20,000 mark on September 21 this year.

“The appetite for realty stocks has not been good. The stocks are certainly being undervalued. But with real estate rates increasing, the situation is bound to change in the coming months,” Ashika Brokers Research Head Paras Bothra said.

Realty majors like DLF and Unitech have underperformed the broader market for almost an year.

DLF had touched its year high on October 21 last year. Since then till date, the scrip had plunged nearly twenty per cent while the broader gauge Sensex witnessed a gain of a whopping 21 per cent during the period under review.

Similarly, another major player in the realty sector, Unitech has also seen a dull year so far, tanking over ten per cent from the late October last year till now.