Deals galore: Corporate India continues to buy

The ongoing financial crisis in the world does not seem to have had a major impact on mergers and acquisition/fund raising activities by corporate India. In fact, in August so far, many large deals like the acquisition of a stake in Vodafone by the Piramals or the latest GMR and Adani interest in energy assets have been announced.

Firstpost did a quick analysis to bring to you some of the deals (refer table) announced in August 2011.

• GMR Energy: GMR Energy plans to acquire a 30 percent stake in Indonesian firm PT Golden Energy Mines Tbk for a cash consideration of $450-550 million. The transaction will be funded through a mixture of debt and internal accruals and is expected to be completed in the calendar year 2011. This acquisition is expected to help the company purchase coal over the next 25 years and increase its annual offtake quantity. To read more, click here.

Adani Gas: Adani Gas, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises plans to pick up a 20 percent equity in Green Gas Ltd, which is a joint venture between GAIL and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). IOC and GAIL decided to induct Adani Gas as a strategic partner due to its gas pipeline infrastructure in Lucknow. Green Gas supplies city gas and compressed natural gas in Agra and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. To read more, click here .

**Piramal Healthcare:**Piramal Healthcare acquired a 5.5 percent stake in Vodafone Essar for a consideration of Rs2,856 crore or $640 million. On completion, Vodafone will hold a 69.5 percent stake in Vodafone Essar as foreign companies are not allowed to hold more than a 74 percent stake in local telecom companies. The Piramal Group is sitting on a cash pile of around Rs 10,000 crore post the selling of its domestic formulations business to Abbot last year. The Piramal group has been opportunistic in their M&A activity and have undertaken 30 odd deals in the last decade. In fact, Piramal Glass could also be a potential deal in the pile line in the near future. To read about its stake in Vodafone, click here .

Make My Trip: Make My Trip in conjunction with its largest share holder, PE firm SAIF Partners, has acquired a 76.6 percent stake in Gurgaon-based Le Travenues Technology for a total consideration of $24.15 million. While Make My Trip has picked up a 19.9 percent stake for $4.8 million, SAIF has acquired 56.7 percent for $13.7 million. La Travenues Technology runs travel search engine iXiGO. To read more, click here .

Fortis Healthcare: Fortis Healthcare International is on an acquisition spree. It plans to acquire a 65 percent stake in Vietnam’s Hoan My Medical Corporation for $64 million. This is the company’s sixth investment in the last eight months. Hoan My Medical Corporation is one of Vietnam’s largest private healthcare groups with 700 beds across five hospitals. It plans to set up a 200-bed tertiary bed care hospital in Ho Chi Minh by November 2011. To read more about the acquisition, click here .

Deals in August 2011