India Monitor Commentary

South Asia

22nd February 2024

Strong economic performance in an election year

Market data Key takeaways

Nifty 50
■ General election due in April/May with current polls and recent state
Close 22217
elections suggesting a comfortable victory for the BJP. The key question
52 wk range 16,828 - 22,252
appears to be, what will be the scale of the victory.
% chge (1 YR) +26.8%
■ The recent interim budget prioritised capital investment, particularly schemes
to help India with its net zero ambitions (by 2070). Government capital
expenditure was increased by 11% to USD 134 billion in FY 2024/25. The
government is also targeting a reduction in the fiscal deficit to 4.5% in
2025/26 from 5.1% in 2024/25.

■ Government forecasts GDP growth of approx. 7.3% for 2023-24. Third party
forecasts are in the range of 6.4% - 6.7%;
USD/INR Exchange rate
USD/INR: 82.8 Key data points

GDP

The IMF forecasts GDP growth of 6.5% in 2024/25 and increased its forecast for
2023/24 to 6.7% from 6.3%. OECD updates forecast to 6.2% for 2024/25 from
6.1%.

Date: 22/2/2024

Harjinder Singh-Heer
E: harjinder@cornhillstrategy.com
India Monitor
Cornhill Strategy

Consumer Price Inflation

Whilst CPI declined, food price inflation remains a problem and led the
government to extend food subsidy programmes that were introduced during the
pandemic.

Foreign Direct Investment

India received USD 33 billion of FDI in the first nine months of 2023. The country
continues to prove a challenging environment for foreign companies, primarily
because of a relatively complex regulatory landscape. The government has
made attempts to simplify FDI rules and has increased the foreign ownership
ceiling in a number of sectors (most recently to 100% foreign ownership in the
space sector) , but there is evidence of more aggressive oversight of foreign
companies by Indian regulators and the tax authorities.

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India Monitor
Cornhill Strategy

M&A in 2023

Deal activity was slightly subdued in 2023 compared to previous years (though
2022 was an outlier in terms of deal value due to the HDFC-HDFC Bank merger).
In terms of deal volume, manufacturing and logistics are important sectors though
we expect an increasing focus on renewable energy.

This year started with a major deal in the telecoms infrastructure sector as
American Tower Corporation sold its Indian tower business to the Canadian
infrastructure investor, Brookfield. The acquisition adds to Brookfield’s existing
portfolio it acquired from Reliance Industrial Investments in 2020 and the 5,000
small cell sites it acquired in 2022.

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India Monitor
Cornhill Strategy

Recent deal activity

Acquiror/ Acquiree/
Acquiror /
Reported date Investor - Acquiree / Investee Investee - Industry Investee activities Commentary
Investor
Country Country
13-Feb-2024 Mizuho Bank Japan Credit Saison India India Software services Digital financial services CSI has 1.2 million active loans worth over INR 100 mn.

Aggne Global, AG IT Aggne Group is an insurance technology services company; revenues

13-Feb-2024 Wipro India India Software Services Insurance
Services were USD17.3 million in 2023.

Max
8-Feb-2024 India Alexis Hospital India Healthcare Hospital 200 bed hospital in Nagpur
Healthcare

CapitaLand 3 industrial facilities

5-Feb-2024 Singapore India Real estate Industrial Industrial park in Chennai. CapitaLand is listed on SGX.
India Trust in Chennai

Khanij Bidesh The State-owned KABIL will start exploration and development of five
15-Jan-2024 India 5 lithium blocks Argentina Mining Lithium
India lithium brine blocks.

InSemi is a provider of semiconductor design and embedded services

14-Jan-2024 Infosys India InSemi India Software Services Semiconductors
based in Bengaluru.
Capital Foods, owner of the brands Ching’s Secret and Smith & Jones,
Tata Capital Foods, and Organic India, a company that sells organic herbal teas and health
13-Jan-2024 India India FMCG Consumer goods
Consumer Organic India foods. In FY23, Capital Foods reported revenue from operations of ₹705.5
crore.

4-Jan-2024 Brookfield Canada ATC India India Telecoms Telecom Towers American Tower Corporation India has approximately 78,000 towers.

The acquired business provides design and consulting services for India's
Assystem L&T Infrastructure
3-Jan-2024 France India Industry Engineering transport and infrastructure development. L&T IEL recorded a revenue of
STUP Engineering Ltd
Rs. 922 million in the Financial Year 2022-23 and has 430 employees.
Vibgyor Paints and
15-Dec-2023 Nippon Paint Japan Chemicals India Industry Paints Vibgyor, located in Tamil Nadu supplies paints to Indian Railways.
Pondicherry
AMG Media
15-Dec-2023 Networks India IANS India Pvt Ltd India Media & Marketing News IANS is a media news agency.
(Adani)

Barentz Healthcare and Radian is a high-end niche specialty solutions provider predominantly in
18-Dec-2023 Netherlands Radian India Speciality chemicals
International Pharma colour cosmetics and personal care industries.

We maintain a proprietary deal activity database, covering mergers, acquisitions and private equity/venture funding. For further information, please contact us.

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About Cornhill Strategy

Cornhill Strategy is a UK-based strategic advisory and corporate intelligence firm. It has
significant experience of undertaking advisory and research assignments across the South
Asia region, working with clients in areas such as market entry strategy, acquisition search,
commercial due diligence and competitor intelligence.

For further information, please contact:

Harjinder Singh-Heer

Tel: +44 (0) 79806 14738

Email: harjinder@cornhillstrategy.com
Web: cornhillstrategy.com