India’s Top Mergers and Acquisitions of 2008

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May 9 – India's top mobile operator Bharti Airtel Ltd is in exploratory talks to acquire 51 percent in South Africa's MTN Group at a value of around US$19 billion, creating the world’s sixth-largest mobile company with 130 million subscribers across 21 countries.

If the deal does go though, it would make it India's biggest foreign deal.

Reuters reported Tata Steel Ltd. last year engineered India's biggest takeover to date, a US$13 billion purchase of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group Plc, which was more than double the size of the next biggest deal, Hindalco Industries purchase of Canada's Novelis.

Indian firms have announced deals worth $6.8 billion so far in 2008, down 39 percent from the same period last year.

Indian firms completed deals worth a record $31.4 billion in 2007. The top deal so far this year is the US$2.3 billion pending acquisition of Ford Motor Co's. Jaguar and Land Rover brands by Tata Motors Ltd.