Wall Street banks dominated the mergers and acquisition advisory league table in 2017, with Morgan Stanley topping the list while domestic heavyweights JM FinancialBSE 0.97 % and Arpwood Capital gained top place in terms of advisory fee collection as acquisition spree of foreign investors pushed inbound M&As to a record high last year.
Kotak Mahindra BankBSE -0.06 % ranked in top positions of both M&A and ECM tables while Axis Bank was the other Indian bank that found a place among the top five of the investment banking deal table in 2017. Equity capital issuances also hit a record high, up 208% during the year, as a liquidity-driven rally pushed Indian stock markets to record highs, according to data compiled by Thompson Reuters and Bloomberg.
The $23-billion merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone India was the bumper deal for bankers, helping Morgan Stanley, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Kotak to lead the M&A league table.
Morgan Stanley topped M&A advisory league table of both Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg while Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs grabbed places in top five among both the tables. Other than Idea-Vodafone, Morgan Stanley was also involved in DLF’s $1.9 billion deal to sell 40% in rental arm unit to GIC Singapore and the $2.4-billion merger between Bharat Financial Inclusion and IndusInd BankBSE 0.76 %.
Banking on the $12.5 billion acquisition of Essar Oil’s assets by Roseneft, JM Financial and Arpwood Capital made into the top positions of bankers, by gaining the maximum amount of fees. Inbound M&A activity hit a record high of $31.7 billion, up 15% in value compared to 2016.
But outbound M&A activity slowed 73.5% to $2.6 billion from 2016, the lowest annual period since 2014. This brought the total cross-border M&A activity to $34.3 billion, down 8.1% in value compared to 2016. Domestic M&A activity stood at $25.4 billion, down 0.5% in value from over a year ago, despite the 18.6% increase in the number of announced domestic deals from the same period last year. 2017 has been a stellar year for India’s equity capital markets, with ECM proceeds reaching the highest annual period in a decade.
