News: Indian cos conclude 24 outbound acquisitions

(BL 27/07/2006) New Delhi - Indian entrepreneurs continued their overseas shopping spree with homegrown firms concluding 24 outbound acquisitions out of a total of 58 during May-June period, industry chamber Assocham said.

The mergers and acquisitions were mostly in engineering, IT-ITES, pharmaceuticals and energy sectors. There were three outbound deals in each of these areas in the two-month period, the chamber said quoting its Eco Pulse study.

Corporates such as Wipro, Tata Motors, Nicholas Piramal, Larsen & Tubro, Raymond's and Lupin Laboratories led the acquisition race overseas, it said.

In recent acquisitions, NIIT Technologies Ltd (NTL) took over UK-based insurance solutions provider ROOM Solutions Ltd for about $25 million in an all-cash deal, Godrej Beverages and Foods acquired Nutrine Confectionery company for about Rs 250 crore and Lupin Ltd purchased 51 per cent stake in Belgium's Artifex Finance CVA, the report said.

On the domestic front, cement, IT&ITES, telecom, pharmaceutical and retail sector witnessed maximum number of deals.

Energy sector accounted for eight deals, followed by engineering and technology (IT & ITES) sector with six deals each.

Pharmaceuticals sector struck out five deals during this period and Telecom and FMCG sector witnessed four deals each, it said.