New Delhi: Riding high on its huge overseas expansion plans and an aggressive merger and acquisition spree, India Inc is set to double its presence on the elite Fortune 500 list of the world's largest companies in the next four years, a new study reveals.
Given the unprecedented rate at which Indian companies are snapping up their rivals across the globe, they could be buying nearly 370 companies a year in the western countries of the US and Europe alone by the end of this decade, global consultancy major Accenture said in a report.
“As a result of Corporate India's ever expanding takeover caravan on the foreign shores, there could be more domestic entrants to the Fortune Global 500 list and the number could rise to 12 by 2010, from just six currently,” Accenture said.
The US-based business magazine Fortune's International Editor Robert Friedman said that getting up to $13 billion in revenues (the minimum to make to the list as per this year's list) is a big step and there are not many Indian companies in striking distance.
However, a jump in the number of Indian companies on the list to double the current level is possible in six years, Friedman said while adding that he might be a bit more cautious on the forecast.
According to Accenture, Indian companies will make more than 180 acquisitions in Europe and the US in 2006, up from 130 in 2005.
Riding high on a booming domestic economy and availability of easy international financing, Indian companies have already made about 150 overseas acquisitions worth a total of over $16 billion since the beginning of 2006, as against total 137 outbound takeover deals in entire 2005.
Last year's deals totaled just $4.5 billion that itself was treble the figure for 2004, while the total number of overseas acquisitions by domestic firms had hovered between 29-51 deals during the previous five years, the data available with international M&A tracking firm Dealogic shows.
While India still lacks the size of companies in the US, China, South Korea and Japan as well as various European countries, multi-billion dollar deals like the Corus acquisition by Tata Steel is putting India Inc on the fast lane to scale the high levels required to be counted among the world's largest corporates.
Tata Steel is already being projected as a sure-shot entry to the next Fortune Global 500 list, following its acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus, which is already present on the list at 352nd position.
Friedman, who was recently in New Delhi to announce the launch of Fortune Global Forum 2007 that would be held here in October 2007 – the first such event in India – said that corporate behemoth Tata Group's steel venture has the brightest chance among all the non-Fortune 500 Indian companies to make to the next list of the world's largest corporates.
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