With a surge in the number of global merger and acquisition (M&A) deals involving Indian companies, revenues of investment banks from India have shot up 23 per cent in 2006 to $413 million.
While the sheer quantum of M&A deals in recent years has resulted in a number of investment banks treading a path to India, analysts said that the growing number of high-value deals such as the recent Tata-Corus deal is stoking further interest in the Indian investment banking space.
Further, there are a number of big-ticket deals in the pipeline such as the stake sale in Hutchison Essar.
ABN Amro led the pack of investment banks in India in 2006, accounting for the highest volume of M&A transactions.
Incidentally, ABN Amro, along with Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse Group, advised Tata Steel on the Corus deal.
According to Grant Thornton, the total number of deals struck in 2006 was estimated at 782 ($28.2 billion), compared to 467 ($18.3 billion) in 2005. Of these, 480 were M&A deals and 302 private equity ones.
Source : MoneyControl