Mumbai: Merger and acquisitions surged 17.4 per cent in the March quarter to $25.3 billion across 97 deals, according to a report.
According to the report collated by Mergermarket, relaxation in the pandemic restrictions as well as investor optimism due to vaccines roll-out and government stimulus have helped the delay activities.
But, it is unlikely to sustain into the second quarter given the ferocity of the second wave, even though pharma and technology firms are expected to continue to attract investments, it added.
Though the deal value jumped 17.4 per cent to $25.3 billion across 97 deals, over $21.6 billion across 122 deals, which means the deal volume is down 20.5 per cent during the same period over the same period last year, Mergermarket said in the report.
This is the second highest quarterly deal value since 2019 when it had scaled to $26.8 billion across 122 deals.
Pharma, technology, real estate, consumer and energy were active sectors compared to same period in 2020, it added.
At $15.4 billion across 43 deals, inbound deals led the M&A activity chart hitting its fourth highest quarterly deal value, logging in a dull 119 per cent growth over the same period in 2020 when it was only $7 billion across 52 deals.
The biggest inbound deal was the acquisition of energy company ReNew Power by RMG Acquisition Corp for $7.2 billion.
Investments from the US rose seven times in value to $9.9 billion across 17 deals over the same period in 2020 when it was only $1.5 billion across 16 deals.
However, domestic M&As plunged 1.5 per cent in value to $9.9 billion across 54 deals, over $14.5 billion in 70 transactions. The largest domestic transactions were the acquisition of 64.3 per cent stake in Supermarket Grocery Supplies by Tata Group for $1.3 billion, and 58.53 per cent stake acquisition of Numaligarh Refinery by Engineers India and Oil India for $1.28 billion.
Outbound deal value rose by 119 per cent to $1.54 billion across 13 deals compared to $705 million across 14 deals a year ago. PE buyouts doubled to $3.8 billion in 28 transactions over $1.9 billion across 31 deals.
Technology companies accounted for almost 35 per cent of total PE buyouts 11 deals worth $1.3 billion, while PE investments in pharma companies jumped more than 3 times to $227 million in value compared to $61 million a year ago.
On the other hand, PE exits soared 260 per cent to $11.7 billion across 22 deals as against to $3.2 billion in seven deals, led by energy, technology and business services, representing as much as 87 per cent of the total PE exits. Transportation and construction recorded the lowest deal value.