Indian companies have certainly become more ambitious and certainly adventurous. Most companies are no more the ‘frogs in the well of the license-raj era’. In today’s world, Indian companies are not only setting up their own bases overseas, they have become quite ambitious to fly out of the Indian business boundaries to find new companies and potential markets for acquisition and company investment. Even though it might take some years for them to start showing the big time profit evaluations from the acquisitions made so far.
However, this shows that Indian companies have certainly become confident about expanding their operations overseas successfully.
In the last decade itself, many Indian companies have been on a big time acquisition spree, and that has definitely added a huge value to Brand India. Indian companies (listed and unlisted) announced 1995 overseas acquisitions from the last two which involves an investment of nearly $ 116 billion – as reported by The Economics Times.
India has also come out as the world’s 21st largest overseas and foreign investor, with more than 75 billion dollars in foreign investment, just in the past 10 years. And during the financial year 2009-2010, the investment by the native companies in foreign joint ventures and self-owned subsidiaries alone come up to around 10.3 billion dollars, as per The Reserve Bank of India’s report.
1. Corus Group (U.K.)
Acquired by – Tata Group
Tata Steel, one of the leading steel producers in India, acquired Corus Group for U.S. $12.11 billion (€ 8.5 billion) on January 31, 2007. But only after nine rounds of bidding, the acquisition process was completed. The only other competitive bidder was Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), Brazil.
This acquisition is considered to be one of the biggest foreign acquisitions by an Indian company, and after this only TATA Steel came out to be the fifth largest steel producer in the whole world.
2. Zain Africa
Acquired by – Bharti Airtel
India’s largest mobile services company, Bharti Airtel’s ambition to expand into the markets outside India was completed after this complete acquisition of the African operations of Mobile Telecommunications Company (known as Zain).
Bharti Airtel had acquired Zain Africa for a value of U.S. $10.7 billion. The acquisition gives Bharti Airtel a total customer base of 180 million, including 131 million subscribers it had in India at the end of April.
“By expanding its business outside the country, Bharti Airtel can in the long term benefit from economies of scale, including getting better deals from suppliers” says, Kamlesh Bhatia, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner.
3. Novelis (U.S.)
Acquired by – Hindalco Industries
Aditya Birla Group, one of India’s leading MNCs, acquired the entire stake in the Atlanta based aluminium company Novelis for U.S. $6 billion. This company had separated from Alcan, a global aluminium company. This deal was announced on Feb 11, 2007 by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the AV Birla group.
The deal, in a way recapitulates India’s new appetite for international acquisitions, as it comes barely a fortnight after the Tata-Corus deal, which made Ratan Tata the toast of Indian industry.
4. Imperial Energy (U.K.)
Acquired by – ONGC
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has acquired Imperial Energy. This deal was for 1.3 billion pounds (U.S. $1.9 billion). 96.8 percent of London-listed firm’s shareholders had top accept this takeover offer, for the acquisition deal to take effect.
“The company owed the acquisition to government support, which has seen OVL in the past seven years increase its number of projects to 39 in 17 countries, from just a single project in Vietnam,” says ONGC Chairman R S Sharma
5. Jaguar Cars and Land Rover (U.K.)
Acquired by – Tata Motors
Tata Motors, one of the leading automobile MNCs in India, has acquired both Jaguar and Land Rover, which are two iconic British brands with worldwide growth prospects. This deal was for a whooping U.S. $ 2.3 billion with Ford, the previous American owners.
The deal was effective from May 2008. The deal is seen as yet another endeavor of the fast growing Indian industries, also the latest in a string of foreign acquisitions by Tata.
6. Honiton Energy Holdings (China)
Acquired by – Tanti group
Tanti group of companies jointly with Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank, has acquired Honiton Energy Holdings, a Chinese wind energy firm. The joint venture partners invested around U.S. $2 billion which help to develop a 1,650-MW portfolio of wind farms in China.
Tulsi R. Tanti, Chairman Tanti Group felt that the acquisition would reinforce their commitment towards the renewable energy sector. And also would have a potential growth of wind energy in developing countries like India and China.
7. Abbot Point Coal Terminal (Australia)
Acquired by – Adani Enterprises
Adani Enterprises completed a $2-billion deal which acquired Abbot Point Coal Terminal in Australia on the month of May, 2011.This acquisition marked the third overseas acquisition in nine months by Adani Enterprises, the country’s biggest private port and is India’s largest coal importer.
This deal one of the largest port acquisitions in the world. There have also been many Indian companies which have acquired many mines in foreign countries to secure coal supplies for Indian projects.
8. Algoma Steel (Canada)
Acquired by – Essar Steel Global
Ruias owned Essar Steel Global acquires the Canadian steel company Algoma Steel at a valuation of Canadian $1.85 billion. The arrangement must be approved by Algoma’s shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least 66 per cent (2/3rd) of the votes cast. Algoma Steel is an integrated steel producer based in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.
Essar Steel Holding, Essar Group’s overseas investment arm made the investment possible and easy. Algoma would definitely provide Essar an excellent platform for the Canadian and North American market.
9. Marcellus Shale (U.S.)
Acquired by – Reliance Industries
India’s Reliance Industries bought a $1.7 billion stake in natural-gas properties Marcellus Shale, from Atlas Energy Inc. This acquisition made Reliance in becoming the latest international energy company to bet on growing fuel output in U.S. shale formations.
Reliance, led by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, got the right to buy 40 percent of all new Marcellus Shale leases that Atlas acquires, after this purchase acquisition and agreement was completed. And this was one of the most lucrative deals which have been seen in the Marcellus.
10. Minnesota Steel (U.S.)
Acquired by – Essar Steel Holdings
Ruias owned Essar Steel Holdings, part of Essar Global, has acquired Minnesota Steel, a U.S. based steel company with estimated reserves of over 1.4 billion tones. Essar Global invested a sum of $1.65 billion which was used to set up a steel plant in Minnesota Steel company’s facilities.
The Essar Global chairman felt that the investment in Minnesota Steel was very benefiting as they would get good exposure in the North American market. He added that Minnesota’s iron ore reserves will help the company to be one of the low cost producers of steel in the world.
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