India Inc witnessed a 3 percent rise in deal activity to USD13.2 billion across 181 transactions in July, a report said on Tuesday. Despite Covid playing havoc across the country and the lurking fear of a third wave, corporate deals seem to be breaking all records.

Going by the number of deals, the volumes showed a 66 percent increase to 181 transactions, thus indicating a dip in average ticket sizes, the data by the consultancy firm Grant Thornton Bharat said. When compared to the preceding June, the deal volumes were 6 percent higher, while the deal values were 33 percent up because of a higher number of big-ticket transactions, it added. "This surge in deal activity was primarily due to companies continuing to borrow economically and spending their cash reserves on transformative deals to reposition themselves for the post-Covid world," its partner Shanthi Vijetha said. Vijetha said the firm hopes for the deal trend will remain positive in the coming months too.

According to the report, the USD13.2 billion of investments is the highest ever for any month since 2005. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity witnessed 36 deals worth USD 5.6 billion in July, it said, adding that the volumes were up by 13 percent on a year-on-year basis, and deal values dropped by 37 percent owing to a shortfall in the big-ticket transactions.

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