Top 10 Indian Mergers & Acquisitions of the 2010!

India Inc. is back making multibillion dollar deals like never before. The total deal value this year has surpassed 2007 which was the big ticket year for mergers and acquisitions. The recession and economic slowdown had caused a lot of heartburn, disappointment and distress among the corporate honchos in the country. But with deals crossing US $55 billion this year, the smiles are back on the faces of the big guns.

Along with hunting for organizations at bargains, the deals also involve going for loss making companies in developed countries to turn them around. Value buys became the order of the day. Though a number of acquisitions were in the developed world like Singapore, Australia, Europe etc, many of them happened in the developing world as well.

And then there were some which happened in India as well!

Top 10 Mergers & Acquisitions in India for 2010

Tata Chemicals buys British salt

Tata Chemicals bought British Salt; a UK based white salt producing company for about US $ 13 billion. The acquisition gives Tata access to very strong brine supplies and also access to British Salt’s facilities as it produces about 800,000 tons of pure white salt every year

Reliance Power and Reliance Natural Resources merger

This deal was valued at US $11 billion and turned out to be one of the biggest deals of the year. It eased out the path for Reliance power to get natural gas for its power projects

Airtel’s acquisition of Zain in Africa

Airtel acquired Zain at about US $ 10.7 billion to become the third biggest telecom major in the world. Since Zain is one of the biggest players in Africa covering over 15 countries, Airtel’s acquisition gave it the opportunity to establish its base in one of the most important markets in the coming decade

Abbott’s acquisition of Piramal healthcare solutions

Abbott acquired Piramal healthcare solutions at US $ 3.72 billion which was 9 times its sales. Though the valuation of this deal made Piramal’s take this move, Abbott benefited greatly by moving to leadership position in the Indian market

GTL Infrastructure acquisition of Aircel towers

This acquisition was worth about US $ 1.8 billion and brought GTL Infrastructure to the third position in terms of number of mobile towers – 33000. The money generated gave Aircel the funds for expansion throughout the country and also for rolling out its 3G services

ICICI Bank buys Bank of Rajasthan

This merger between the two for a price of Rs 3000 cr would help ICICI improve its market share in northern as well as western India

JSW and Ispat Ki Kahani

Jindal Steel Works acquired 41% stake at Rs 2,157 cr in Ispat Industries to make it the largest steel producer in the country. This move would also help Ispat return to profitability with time

Reckitt Benckiser goes shopping

Reckitt acquired Paras Pharma at a price of US $ 726 million to basically strengthen its healthcare business in the country. This was Reckitt’s move to establish itself as a strong consumer healthcare player in the fast growing Indian market

Mahindra goes international

Mahindra acquired a 70% controlling stake in troubled South Korea auto major Ssang Yong at US $ 463 million. Along with the edge it would give Mahindra in terms of the R & D capabilities, this deal would also help them utilise the 98 country strong dealer network of Ssang Yong

Fortis Healthcare acquisitions

Fortis Healthcare, the unlisted company owned by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh looks set to make it two in two in terms of acquisitions. After acquiring Hong Kong’s Quality Healthcare Asia Ltd for around Rs 882 cr last month, they are planning on acquiring Dental Corp, the largest dental services provider in Australia at Rs 450 cr

As you see in the list, the M & A’s have happened across industries and sectors like banking, automotive, healthcare, FMCG, telecom etc. This shows that this really has been the dream year of Indian industry.

Would you like to add any other deals to this list?