The USD 40 billion merger between HDFC Bank and parent HDFC, the biggest ever deal in the country, took the overall deal volumes in April 2022 to a record high of USD 46.3 billion, a report by a consultancy firm said on Thursday.
The same number had stood at USD 12.91 billion in the year-ago period and USD 8.7 billion in 2020, the report by Grant Thornton Bharat said, making it clear that there are clouds of uncertainty in the deals landscape for the near-term.
“While the geopolitical concerns and rising global inflation could likely cloud the near-term growth prospects, various domestic macro factors such as tax revenue growth, improvement in consumption and industrial high frequency indicators, etc. remain supportive of the economic growth and positive news for deal making,” its partner Shanthi Vijetha said.
There were a total of 183 deals in the month, with startups, information technology, banking and media sectors dominating activity.
On the merger and acquisition front, there were 45 deals worth USD 42.73 billion, which was a 676 per cent jump in the activity by values.
The private equity investments came at USD 3.6 billion across 138 deals, which was a 52 per cent drop by value terms due to the absence of big-ticket deals, it said.
The start-up sector continued to drive volumes, with a 71 per cent share of PE volumes with investment values of USD 0.9 billion, it said.
The month witnessed eight high value investments of USD 100 million and above across five distinct sectors ranging from media, banking, e-commerce, start-up and real estate, it added.