47% drop in deal volumes in Apr

India saw only 100 deals valued at $5 billion, with a 47 per cent decline in deal volumes and a steep 89 per cent decline in values compared to April 2022, a report showed on Wednesday.

The M&A deal activity saw a significant downtrend both in terms of deal volumes by 53 per cent and deal values, with only 24 deals at $477 million as compared to 51 deals of $42.9 billion in April 2022, according to the Grant Thornton Bharat Dealtracker report.

Top five deals for the month accounted for 81 per cent of overall M&A deal values, valuing $387 million. Of these, $218 million came from the pharma, healthcare, and biotech sector followed by deals in the energy sector.

"Global macroeconomic factors, turmoil in the banking sector in the US and Euro zone, fall in the price of commodities, specifically crude oil price continues to dampen the deal activity," said Shanthi Vijetha, Partner, Growth, Grant Thornton Bharat. However, domestic M&A deal-making continues to be resilient backed by continued strong domestic demand. "We may also expect to see an uptick in PE activity in the coming months on the back of start-ups' focus on profitability, resulting in investors turning bullish on select pockets of the Indian market," Vijetha added.

Private Equity (PE) activity saw 76 deals valued at $4.5 billion. The funding winter continued to cause a 45 per cent decline in investment volumes.