The focus on mergers and acquisitions of Indian financials service sector has increased in 2007, said a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on ?Financial Services M&A , Going for growth In Asia? .
The report said that China and India still remain the top two targets for M&As, due to underlying economic growth conditions. The interest in India has increased slightly from 36% in 2006 to 39% in 2007.
However other markets are begining to compete as well.
Taiwan and Malaysia are considered ripe, while others such as Vietman, Indonesia and Pakistan are attracting interests.
The surge of M&A activity seen in Asia?s financial services industry in 2006 is likely to gather momentum over the next five years as firms–both within the region and from the west–continue to look to Asia as the home of growth.
The impact of this focus on Asia is already being felt in the form of intense competition for limited supply of quality assets, higher prices and spread of activity to more countries across the region and indeed to more sub-sectors of financial services.
Based on data from M&A Asia, M&A in the sector, including insurance, skyrocketed by 66% to $ 64 billion in 2006 from $38.8 billion in 2005.
The PWC survery among the executives of the financial sector services has identified high pricing as a major barrier for undertaking M&A.
Concerns about the value for money will undoubtedly lead some organizations to put moe emphasis on organic growth plans.