Investment bankers who help companies buy, sell, merge and restructure, are back in action after a lull as India’s top business houses renew their vigour to purchase overseas companies and resources and many global companies aggressively look to enter the Indian market through acquisitions.

Last week, Tata Communications (TCL), part of the $84-billion steel-to-software diversified conglomerate, appointed Standard Chartered to advise for a potential bid to purchase British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless Worldwide. TCL, which has purchased companies in Africa in the past, will have to make a bid by March-end, according to the British takeover laws. TCL has set aside $250 million to acquire companies.

Tata group company Tata Global Beverages (TGBL), which owns the world’s second largest tea-maker Tetley, has appointed Rothschild India to purchase tea companies in emerging markets like Russia. Indian Hotels Company, which owns Taj to Ginger hotel chains, is scouting for more hospitality chains abroad. The hotel chain has appointed Standard Chartered to advise them.

?We are in the process of identifying our acquisition targets in these two countries,” TGBL’s managing director Percy Siganporia told FE in an earlier interaction. ?TGBL has set out on a journey to become a global leader in branded good-for-you beverages through innovation, strategic acquisitions and organic growth. The company is ready with a war chest of R1,000 crore after it sold its stake in Glaceau to Coca Cola company in 2007.

?Every December, half of our bankers take leave, but in 2011, literally everybody went on leave as deals almost dried up,? says a managing director of a foreign bank. ?But, deals have slowly started flowing in January and December.

In February, M&A volumes doubled and number of deals rose. The volume almost doubled to $15.43 billion with 94 deals from $8.24 billion in the same month last year. There were 74 deals in February last year, data released on Monday by Grant Thornton, a global M&A and advisory firm, show.

The ace in the pack was the proposed $17.4-billion internal ownership rejig at London Stock Exchange-listed Vedanta Resources and its Indian subsidiaries. JP Morgan India and Morgan Stanley India advised Vedanta and Sterlite.

?We have seen a significant jump in overall transaction values in the month due to the announcement of a large restructuring deal by Vedanta Group for $ 17.4 billion, which is the highest in the past three years and also the month of February has seen the highest in the last three years in terms of deal values,? says Harish HV, partner, India Leadership Team at Grant Thornton.

?Inbound continues to surge in comparison with outbound, though we are seeing an increased interest from corporates in outbound in the recent two months.?

Action at the $35-billion Aditya Birla Group is also hotting up. The diversified conglomerate, with interests from cement to mobile telephony, has appointed Bank of America Merill Lynch to purchase overseas coal mines. The banker is in the works to bid for a controlling stake in Australia’s Queensland-based New Hope Coal, estimated to have reserves of a billion tonne, enough to feed its aluminum plants back home. Some exits are also in the offing at the Kumarmangalam-owned group. The group has appointed UBS India to sell its business processing company Aditya Birla Minacs. ?We do not comment on market speculation,? says the group spokeswoman.

Like Stanchart, which lost its key position to Morgan Stanley India and Goldman Sachs India in the 2011 league table, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is also busy with more outbound deals. The bank is the advisor to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India’s second-most valuable company, which has teamed up with Gas Authority of India (GAIL), the largest domestic pipeline owner, to bid for Cove Energy. The state-owned companies could make a bid by March. ?Outbound is big boys’ play and this is a clear trend,” says Vinay Menon, executive director at JP Morgan India. ”Indian companies are asking for a package from ideation to finance.?

Focus on mergers and acquisitions in the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani-owned Reliance group is on Reliance Infratel, which owns roughly 50,000 towers. UBS is advising a potential lock, stock and barrel stake sale. Two of the world’s largest private equity funds Blackstone and Carlyle have teamed up and are doing due diligence on R-Infratel. People familiar with the transaction say Blackstone will own a majority in the company, if the deals goes through.

But, some bankers say the inbound deals will drive the M&A market. Strategic acquisitions will drive multinational companies’ rush to purchase Indian counterparts, says Avinash Gupta, national leader at global consulting and audit firm Deloitte India who advises mid-market companies. ?We are busy than last year.?