NEW DELHI: In line with the global funding winter, deal-making involving domestic firms hit a three-year low after falling 51 per cent to $83.8 billion in 2023, saved by the mega-merger of HDFC twins - the biggest deal in India Inc’s history till date, according to an industry report.
Excluding the $60.4-billion HDFC Bank-HDFC merger, year-on-year deal value comparison would have been down by another 23 per cent, as per LSEG Deals Intelligence, formerly Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data.
As a result, there was only one deal above $3 billion in the year - the HDFC Bank-HDFC $60.4 billion deal - compared to five deals in 2022, Elaine Tan, senior manager at LSEG Deals Intelligence said in a note on Thursday.
However, in terms of the volume of deals, it was a minimal 1.7 per cent decline on-year, indicating that a healthier level of mid-market transactions dominated the market.
The equity capital market rose 60 per cent to $31.2 billion in the year, making it the highest annual total since 2021. The total proceeds from follow-on offerings more than doubled to $24.4 billion, driven by record-high block trades.