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 Salts 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

Airtels 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, Airtels acquisition gave it the opportunity to establish its base in one of the most important markets in the coming decade

Abbotts 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 Piramals 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 Reckitts 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 Kongs 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 & As 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

Ten other biggest Mergers and Acquisitions deals in India

Tata Steel acquired 100% stake in Corus Group on January 30, 2007. It was an all cash deal which cumulatively amounted to $12.2 billion. Vodafone purchased administering interest of 67% owned by Hutch-Essar for a total worth of $11.1 billion on February 11, 2007.

India Aluminium and copper giant Hindalco Industries purchased Canada-based firm Novelis Inc in February 2007. The total worth of the deal was $6-billion. Indian pharma industry registered its first biggest in 2008 M&A deal through the acquisition of Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo by Indian major Ranbaxy for $4.5 billion. The Oil and Natural Gas Corp purchased Imperial Energy Plc in January 2009. The deal amounted to $2.8 billion and was considered as one of the biggest takeovers after 96.8% of London based companies' shareholders acknowledged the buyout proposal. In November 2008 NTT DoCoMo, the Japan based telecom firm acquired 26% stake in Tata Teleservices for USD 2.7 billion. India's financial industry saw the merging of two prominent banks - HDFC Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab. The deal took place in February 2008 for $2.4 billion. Tata Motors acquired Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford Motor in March 2008. The deal amounted to $2.3 billion. 2009 saw the acquisition Asarco LLC by Sterlite Industries Ltd's for $1.8 billion making it ninth biggest-ever M&A agreement involving an Indian company. In May 2007, Suzlon Energy obtained the Germany-based wind turbine producer Repower. The 10th largest in India, the M&A deal amounted to $1.7 billion