There are two breaking news in India right now that is getting everybody’s attention. One is the general election in April 16 and the other is the RIL-RPL merger. Irrespective of who benefits from the merger, it technically is the 10th largest M&A deal in India till date.

Mint has column with this view on the merger :

This is a strategy that has worked, though we wonder how long the public investors who buy shares in the new subsidiaries (through initial public offers) will take to see that they are behaving like quasi-venture capitalists that fund a start-up and then exit it by getting RIL shares once the project is ready to spew out cash.

The RPL is a company floated to transfer the risks of a startup from the parent company. It also was a devise to get Chevron’s investment. Once Chevron exit is confirmed and the production is ready to start, there really is no need to still have RPL. Reliance_logo

Even if it is a group company it technically qualifies as a merger. It is also the 10th largets M&A deal in India. Here are top 10 billion dollar mergers and acquisitions India has seen :  

  1. Tata Steel’s mega takeover of European steel major Corus for $12.2 billion. The biggest ever for an Indian company. This is the first big thing which marked the arrival of India Inc on the global stage. The next big thing everyone is talking about is Tata Nano.
  2. Vodafone’s purchase of 52% stake in Hutch Essar for about $10 billion. Essar group still holds 32% in the Joint venture.
  3. Hindalco of Aditya Birla group’s acquisition of  Novellis for $6 billion.
  4. Ranbaxy’s sale to Japan’s Daiichi for $4.5 billion. Sing brothers sold the company to Daiichi and since then there is no real good news coming out of Ranbaxy.
  5. ONGC acquisition of Russia based Imperial Energy for $2.8 billion. This marked the turn around of India’s hunt for natural reserves to compete with China.
  6. NTT DoCoMo-Tata Tele services deal for $2.7 billion. The second biggest telecom deal after the Vodafone. Reliance MTN deal if went through would have been a good addition to the list.
  7. HDFC Bank acquisition of Centurion Bank of Punjab for $2.4 billion.
  8. Tata Motors acquisition of luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover for $2.3 billion. This could probably the most ambitious deal after the Ranbaxy one. It certainly landed Tata Motors into lot of trouble.
  9. Wind Energy premier Suzlon Energy’s acquistion of  RePower for $1.7 billion.
  10. Reliance Industries taking over Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) for 8500 crores or $1.6 billion.

Source : ET