Top M&As of 2018: 7 multi-billion dollar deals sealed by India Inc

Mergers and acquisitions worth $100 billion were announced in 2018 which were accelerated by reform measures. The outlook for 2019 is even better as India continues to climb higher on the Ease of Doing Business rankings. Here are some of the deals which commanded a substantial amount of money.

Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merger | Two of India's top wireless carriers, completed the merger operations in the country to create an entity that will be equally owned by UK’s Vodafone Group and India’s diversified Aditya Birla Group. The new entity, Vodafone Idea is the largest player in the Indian telecom industry. The deal was worth $23 billion.

Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart | Multinational retail giant Walmart acquired a 77 percent stake in e-commerce website Flipkart for a reported value of $16 billion. Following the deal, co-founder Sachin Bansal left the company. Softbank too exited Flipkart selling its entire 20 percent stake to Walmart, for an undisclosed fee. The deal brought Flipkart's valuation to $20.8 billion.

Tata Steel takes over Bhushan Steel | The second largest steel company of India acquired 72.65 percent stake in the bankrupt Bhushan Steel through its fully owned subsidiary, Bamnipal Steel, for $5.2 billion in May. The company has now been renamed Tata Steel BLS.

HUL acquired GSK Consumer | Hindustan Unilever bought GSK's Indian Consumer Healthcare business which owned brands such as Boost and Horlicks, for $3.8 billion. GSK CH India was the market leader in the Health Food Drinks category, prior to the acquisition.

Teleperformance takes over Intelenet Global Services | French outsourcing firm Teleperformance acquired BPO firm Intelenet from Blackstone for a deal worth $1 billion. The company headquartered in Mumbai had posted a revenue of $449 million in the fiscal year ended on March 2018.

LIC's proposal to IDBI bank | Life Insurance Corporation made an offer to acquire a 51 percent stake in IDBI bank for a reported value of Rs 12,000 to 13,000 crore. The deal would give LIC access to IDBI Bank's 2000 branches to sell their products.

Merger of BoB, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank | The government's alternative mechanism panel led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed the merger of the three public sector banks to create country's third-largest bank. The move is a part of the government's disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore. The merger will be reportedly carried out through a share swap.