BIG RECORD! India Inc seals 181 deals worth $13.2 bn in July

India Inc recorded 181 deals amounting to $13.2 billion in July 2021, according to Grant Thornton Bharat's 'Dealtracker'.

There has been a significant year-on-year rise in deal volumes at 66 per cent and 3 per cent increase in the deal values. This is also the highest record volumes for any given month since 2005.

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"This surge in deal activity was primarily due to companies continuing to borrow economically and spending their cash reserves on transformative deals to reposition themselves for the post-Covid-19 world. Corporate India has previously demonstrated agility and adaptability in the face of crisis," said Shanthi Vijetha, Partner, Growth, Grant Thornton Bharat.

"Government reforms and demographic advantage further reiterate India's potential as key investment destination. We hope the deal trend will remain positive in the coming months too," Vijetha said.

The deal activity in mergers and acquisition saw 36 deals worth $5.6 billion in July 2021. While volumes were up by 13 per cent, deal values declined by 37 per cent compared with July 2020. This was mainly due to the shortfall in big-ticket transactions.

There were 145 deals valued at $7.5 billion in the PE/VC investments segment. The record high deals have been accelerated by surge in equities, higher liquidity, and most importantly the increased interest across sectors.

Businesses across the country are on the rebound trajectory resulting in improved lending appetite that has led to record high PE deals. Online business models have greatly been accelerated by the pandemic with monumental growth in their valuation compared to 2019-20.

Start-ups topped both the M&A and PE segment in the volumes chart in July 2021 with 109 deals amounting to $1.6 billion. The month also witnessed several start-ups announcing their plans to go public with their initial public offering. Zomato, Paytm, Nykaa and Ola are some of the biggest names that signalled their plans for IPOs.

Zomato had a blockbuster stint as it received applications close to worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore through IPO.

Byju's acquisition of ed-tech company USA's Epic for $500 million which was followed by Great Learning for $600 million and Flipkart raising $3.6 billion in fresh funds from global investors have been the main highlights of the month.

The year so far witnessed 10 deals worth billion dollars and 81 deals valued at and above $100 million. These high value deals together accounted for 84 per cent of the total deal values in 2021. There have been 13 unicorns in 2021, compared with the seven in 2020, supporting the increase in the deal values in 2021.