- Sunday, May 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani will continue to influence mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in India as the nation’s richest people look for targets to diversify their businesses, Barclays Plc has said, Bloomberg reported.
“We’ve seen both Adani and the Reliance Group have ventured into several newer areas,” Pramod Kumar, managing director and head of investment banking for India at Barclays, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday (13). “They do have capital backing them, so we will continue to see them spot opportunities in this environment,” he added.
India saw completed and pending M&A deals worth $82 billion (£69 billion) in the second quarter — the heaviest ever — according to data gathered by Bloomberg. While Adani contributed with a $10.5 billion (£8.8 billion) deal for Holcim Ltd.’s Indian operations, Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. is among suitors for German retailer Metro AG’s wholesale operations in the South Asian nation, Bloomberg News reported.
Both tycoons are also participating in the 5G spectrum auction in India scheduled later this month.
According to Kumar, more capital will be available to the established and well-managed companies in the country, supporting their M&A strategies.
He, however, added that deal activity in India is going to slow down as investors have become more cautious with rising interest rates and a falling Indian rupee.
“The overall deal momentum in the second half is certainly slowing down, that would impact the overall deal activity,” he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
