Despite the increase in number of mergers and acquisition deals (M&A) and private equity investments in May, the deal value was down 37 per cent compared with the deals formalised in the same month last year.

There were 99 M&A and PE deals in May 2011 against 72 the same month last year. But the total value of deals this May was only $5.38 billion compared with $8.60 billion last May.

Of the 55 M&A deals in the month, only two were worth more than $500 million — Mundra Port SEZ Ltd's $1.95-billion acquisition of Abbott Point Port and Serco's $634-million acquisition of Intelenet Global Services.

“We have seen several new sectors such as shipping and ports and electrical doing large deals. There have also been quite a few large-size deals with four over $100 million,” said Ms C. G. Srividya, Grant Thornton India's Partner and head of valuation services.

The sectors that saw the maximum M&A activity were shipping and ports, IT and ITeS, healthcare, electrical and manufacturing, contributing for 79 per cent of the deals in May. 0

May also saw the highest number of private equity investment deals, according to the Grant Thornton report. PE deal values amounted to $1.14 billion through 43 deals in May 2011 compared with $0.26 billion through 15 deals last year.

The top five sectors for PE investment deals were real estate and infrastructure management, power and energy, IT and ITeS, services and manufacturing. The top five sectors contributed for 57 per cent of the PE investment activity in May 2011.

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