India M&A push undeterred by credit woes

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Armed with strong balance sheets, willing local lenders and unrelenting ambition, Indian companies are well positioned to navigate the credit crunch and maintain their global buying spree, but must be flexible on financing.

Turmoil in credit markets could even serve to open up opportunities for cash-rich Indian corporates looking globally to buy access to materials, technology, and distribution.

"Appetite continues to be there and continues to grow," Chanda Kochhar, joint managing director of ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO), India's No. 2 lender, told the Reuters India Investment Summit. "The Indian corporate sector has a healthy balance sheet strength to be able to execute some of these large transactions."

Indian companies have announced $22.3 billion worth of outbound acquisitions this year, Thomson Financial data show, approaching last year's record $24 billion, which was fattened by Tata Steel's (TISC.BO) blockbuster $12.9 billion takeover of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus.

Indian companies looking to maintain growth trajectories fuelled by average economic expansion of 8.6 percent over the past four years are not shy about their acquisitive leanings.

"We would be looking at major acquisitions, that is no question," Atul Chandra, president of the international oil business for Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.BO) told the Reuters Summit. The firm is ready to spend as much as $15 billion on the right target in oil, gas or petrochemicals, he added.

Other sectors seen ripe for overseas M&A from India include steel, autos and pharmaceuticals.

Hindalco Industries (HALC.BO), which paid $6 billion this year for Canada's Novelis, said last week it is keen to buy copper mines abroad. Pharmaceuticals maker Biocon Ltd (BION.BO), meanwhile, said this week it too hopes to buy overseas.

In what could be India's next signature deal, Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.BO) is vying with local foe Mahindra & Mahindra (MAHM.BO) and private equity firm One Equity Partners to buy British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co (F.N) in a deal expected to be worth roughly $1.5 billion.

"I haven't seen any slowdown in the Indian market," said Colin Banfield, head of Asia Pacific M&A at Lehman Brothers. "I don't think you've seen any reduction in interest from Tata and Mahindra & Mahindra for assets such as Jaguar and Land Rover, despite what's happened in the global financing markets."

FINANCING DEALS

The credit crunch is expected to curtail buyouts globally from highly-leveraged private equity firms, with corporate buyers and sovereign wealth funds poised to take up some of the slack.

"For good deals there will always be money. We'll hopefully see less private equity players at the table. Hopefully that will bring valuations to more reasonable levels," Malvinder Singh, chief executive of Ranbaxy Laboratories (RANB.BO), India's largest drug maker by sales, told the Reuters Summit.

Indian firms may be forced to finance deals differently now that global lenders have lost some of their risk appetite.

"The kind of financing you get on the target may get restricted," Manisha Girotra, who heads UBS's (UBSN.VX) India business -- the top Indian M&A adviser this year, according to Thomson -- told the Reuters Summit.

Leverage that until recently might have been loaded onto the target firm may need to be replaced with more debt or equity on the buyer's balance sheet.

"You could maybe even see some M&A get restricted because the larger ones do need a lot of target financing," said Girotra.

On the upside, a rising rupee INR=IN, up more than 10 percent versus the dollar this year, helps Indian buyers.

"The great opportunity for India of a strengthening rupee is to be able go and buy companies," Andrew Holland, head of DSP Merrill Lynch's strategic risk group, told the Reuters Summit.

ICICI's Kochhar said domestic lenders will take up some of the financing of acquisitions as global lenders retreat.

"Clearly, I think the response from the global banks has been slower, but that hasn't slowed down activity for the Indian corporate sector because there are certain Indian banks like us who are willing to take that call and still fund these acquisitions," she said. "Some of the strong private equity funds that used to be their competitors in acquiring these companies are in fact not that strong," added Kochhar, who said her bank has been involved in 88 percent of Indian merger deals this year.

Alan Rosling, executive director of Tata Sons, the holding company for the acquisitive Tata conglomerate, said he did not expect the group to be affected by the credit turmoil because it is a corporate strategic buyer with a healthy balance sheet, although deals might need to be financed differently.

"It may well be there are opportunities for us as a result of this," he told the Reuters Summit.

"Things may be flushed out because of this squeeze on interbank lending and increase in rates. On the other hand, it may mean the market for corporate control slows."

(Editing by John Mair & Lincoln Feast)