According to Grant Thornton International, women still hold less than a quarter of senior management positions in privately held businesses globally and 34 per cent of PHBs have no women at the senior management level. In India, there is a rise in percentage of women in senior management level (15 per cent) as compared to previous year (14 per cent) but it still ranks in bottom five globally.
There were 312 deals in 2008 with a total announced value of $10.59 billion compared with 405 deals with an announced value of $19.03 billion in the year 2007, according to Grant Thornton's latest annual issue. Though there has been a decline in PE deals but still India Inc braved the downtrend and managed to attract decent number of such deals.
Indian companies announced as many as 60 private equity deals as against 56 M&A transactions, according to the data compiled by global consultancy firm Grant Thornton. However, the total value of PE deals was lower at $2.05 billion compared to $3.01 billion in M&As transactions.
The total number of M&A deals during the first eight months of this year stood at 346, with an announced value of $22.74 billion as against 456 deals amounting to $48.23 billion in the corresponding period in 2007, according to the data compiled by Grant Thornton. There was an increase in high-value deals in August.
Should you swallow the poison pill that keeps the same staff in the same job year after year?
Amid domestic firms' growing appetite for merger and acquisitions and a robust economic expansion, India has surprisingly lost its place as the world's second largest home to 'super growth' companies to a relatively unknown Armenia.
According to the latest IT sector M&A data from Grant Thornton, a total of 175 IT and ITeS deals were announced during the first nine months of 2007 with a total value of $3.59 billion. This translates into an average of 1.54 deals in a day or more than three deals in two days.The 175 deals during January-September period included 120 M&A deals worth $2.54 billion and 55 private equity deals worth $1.05 billion.
With a gradual erosion in valuation of mid- and small-sized IT and IT enabled services firms on the stock markets due to rupee fluctuations and a US slowdown, experts estimate as much as 50 per cent rise in merger and acquisition deals in the domestic IT industry over the next 12 months.
Mergers and acquisitions are set to become one of the most important trends of 2007 for India Inc, with the total deal value crossing $50-billion mark with one more month still to go. According to data compiled by international consultancy major Grant Thornton, India Inc recorded M&A deals worth $940 million in November, taking the total for first 11 months of 2007 to $50.79 billion.
According to data compiled by global consultancy firm Grant Thornton, the volume of M&A deals by Indian companies in countries like Brazil, Scotland, Netherlands and Canada is greater than that in the UK. The value of the nine deals in the UK clinched by Indian firms so far this year stands at just $58.50 million, while India Inc acquired four companies in Canada for a total of $166.70 million, one deal in Scotland for $80 million and another in Brazil for over $33 million.
A Grant Thornton's International Business Report says 40% businesses worldwide have no women senior managers and less than 22% of top positions are filled by women.
From a longer term perspective an improvement in economic environment is necessary for a rise in inbound deals.
A total of 62 M&A deals valued at $3.37 billion were announced in August, against 59 deals worth about $0.94 billion in July, according to data compiled by Grant Thornton.
The total value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of around 28 per cent between 2002 and 2006.
India Inc's appetite for mergers and acquisitions has seen total deal value nearly double in just two months of this year to about $37 billion from $20 billion in the entire 2006.
M&A activity of India Inc has fallen 71 per cent in value terms in the first three months of this calendar year, compared with the same period in 2007. Even though the M&A drive of India Inc has witnessed a slowdown, India Inc's acquisition spree is restless with outbound deals continuing to steal the show. And if experts are to be believed, 2008 will see more outbound deals than inbound ones. Number of outbound deals increased from 12 to 15 since February 2007.
Business owners all over the world are much more stressed than they were a year back, with Taiwan topping the stress chart followed by Hong Kong, Turkey, Mexico and India, according to a recent survey.
While investment activity jumped three to four times this year over last year for e-commerce, it has shown marginal growth (five per cent) in the case of consumer and retail
The RBI rejection is a second blow to BoB - the lead bank of both companies -- after a Delhi high court order on August 18 stayed a move by BoB and the entire consortium of lenders to classify these accounts as fraud, restraining them from taking any other coercive action till the next hearing.
The probe agency has found that the company's vast network of sales agents across the globe was not independent of Jet Airways and several of these entities were linked to its founder, Naresh Goyal.
Adani, which had earlier bid only for the wholesale book, now want all of DHFL's assets and has pipped both Oaktree and Piramal by bidding higher than each of them.
Hiranandnani's new venture is well-timed, but it will face heavy competition from both international majors and domestic peers like Adani Group.
The old guard of Board of Control for Cricket in India continued to show defiance to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) with only six state units filing their responses to "Due Diligence Report' prepared by Deloitte on the functioning of these associations.
After defaulting for a consecutive time in paying its investors, National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) got a Rs 177-crore (Rs 1.77 billion) lifeline from its main promoter, Jignesh Shah-run Financial Technologies.
When it was operational, Jet Airways had over 22,000 employees of them over 16,000 were on the rolls.
Other forms of securities such as compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs), optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) and some derivatives could remain out of the scope of the amendments
One of the key concerns of foreign investors is how the general anti-avoidance rule would apply in case an investor is availing benefits under double taxation avoidance agreement.
About 40 per cent of respondents felt fraud had gone up in India, while 67 per cent said the new Act would improve governance.
The IRP has admitted 33 claims from banks worth Rs 8,462 crore, and is verifying Rs 15,044-crore claims from operational creditors and staff.
Recent incidents suggest these safeguards perform well in simulated conditions and mock drills, but often fall short when actual threats emerge.
Also, a dedicated cell, headed by a member of the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT), will be set up to address concerns faced by start-ups.
Among all the geographies where Amazon is fighting regulators, India is the only place where its lines are also tangled in a major corporate battle, this one with India's largest company by market capitalisation over the acquisition of Mumbai-based Future Group's retail chain, the country's second largest. No other corporate entity in any country offers a challenge to Amazon's hegemony in a way Reliance Industries does - and the final hearing of an arbitration case filed at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre between the two may decide at least some of these issues. This legal battle between one of the world's most powerful corporations and one of India's most powerful conglomerates could be complicated by a host of other developments.
