India Post News Service

NEW YORK: Forty-six Indian companies made strategic acquisitions in the United States during 2006-07, putting the total value of their investments at an impressive $2 billion, according to a latest Ernst & Young study, released by the FICCI on Sept 25. Led by the Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) companies, which accounted for 48 percent of the total number of deals, the equity investments made by Indian enterprises in joint ventures and acquisitions of American companies are expected to further increase as Indian companies increasingly pitch for larger assets overseas.

Making the biggest kills, however, is the Tata Group – three of the top five deals were by Tata Group companies. Last year, Tata Steel had rattled the world with its $12 billion acquisition of European steel giant Corus, and it is leading the Indian acquisitions in the US too.

The five biggest outbound deals in terms of value from financial year 2006-07 include the acquisition of New York-based Energy Brands by Tata Tea Limited at $677 million; the acquisition of Eight O’clock Coffee Company at $220 million by Tata Coffee Limited; the outright purchase of the swanky Boston hotel Ritz-Carlton at $170 million by Tata’s Indian Hotels; the acquisition of Columbia’s prestigious oil company, Omimex de Columbia at $425 million by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation; and the $148 million acquisition of Lason Inc., an IT &ITES company by HOV Services.

Outlining the trends in Indian outbound investments, the report states that the year 2006 will be remembered in India’s corporate history as one of the most exciting on the mergers & acquisitions front. It was a year when Indian companies went shopping across the globe and acquired a number of strategically significant companies.