Wall Street On Dalal Street ; Lured by the Multi-Billion Dollar Deals, the World's Largest I- Banks Are Launching, or Expanding, Their Operations in India. But This Time, They're Going Solo.

Summary

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Investment banking is among the toughest businesses to be in; but it is also among the most rewarding. India has been a relatively late starter in this field, and for a long time, prior to 1991, a large part of it was restricted only to the capital markets. But that has changed dramatically over the last 15 months, courtesy some high voltage mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. According to Grant Thornton, in 2006, there were 480 M&A deals involving Indian companies; the total transaction value: $20.3 billion (Rs 89,320 crore). Sounds impressive? Then sample this: total M&As in the first two months of 2007 add up to more than $30 billion (1,32,000 crore), courtesy the Tata-Corus, Hindalco-Novelis and Vodafone-Hutchison Essar deals.

These numbers are reason enough for India to start blipping furiously on the radars of global investment banks. The number of big ticket M&As, they are convinced, will only grow in this country; and they all want a piece of the action. That is one of the reasons why several MNC I-banks are coming in solo, and those that have joint ventures with Indian partners, are pulling out of their tie- ups, to trod the solo path.

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Wall Street On Dalal Street ; Lured by the Multi-Billion Dollar Deals, the World's Largest I- Banks Are Launching, or Expanding, Their Operations in India. But This Time, They're Going Solo.

Goldman Sachs, for instance, parted ways with Kotak Mahindra, its erstwhile JV partner, early last year. "When we set up (independent) operations in March 2006, the idea was to build the business as quickly as possible. Our immediate focus was on getting licences for investment banking and equities," says L. Brooks Entwistle, Managing Director and CEO, Goldman Sachs India. Goldman Sachs is a big name globally and a large presence in a growing market like India was sine qua non. "We hav...

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