Mergers and acquisitions involving domestic companies jumped to the highest level since 2011 to $26.1 billion during the first nine months this year.
The amount is up 16.5 per cent from the year—ago period.
During the first three quarters of 2011, the domestic M&A market had stood at $34.5 billion, according to the data collated by Thomson Reuters.
The average M&A deal size climbed to $75.2 million in the January—September period, against $63.1 million a year ago as most deals were in the $500 million—plus range.
Out of this, domestic deals accounted for $11.1 billion due to Sun Pharmaceutical’s pending acquisition of Ranbaxy for $4.1 billion. The deal pushed the healthcare sector to capture 40.3 per cent of domestic deal activity.
However, total cross—board M&As plunged 40.2 per cent to $10.7 billion from the last year levels as both inbound and outbound activity declined. While inbound deals fell 24.6 per cent, outbound deals plummeted 70.2 per cent over the same period last year.
Total worth of completed deals amounted to $21.6 billion, up by 3.6 per cent to $22.4 billion in 2013.
Healthcare deals topped the deal street in market share with 23.2 per cent at $6.1 billion, an increase of 145.8 per cent increase from the first nine of 2013, making it the highest since 2008 when it stood at $6.2 billion.
Energy and power sector followed next with 14.4 per cent of the deals at $3.7 billion, but down to 39.8 per cent from the same period last year.
Technology, media, and telecom sector together managed a market share of 16.7 per cent at $4.3 billion from the first nine months of 2013, up by 35 per cent.