MUMBAI: Deal making hit a three-year high, surging 72% on-year during the first three quarters of 2025, amounting to $109.9 billion, buoyed by large domestic restructurings and strategic outbound acquisitions coupled with sustained inbound deals.
Deal making activity reached a three-year high as deal value to totaled $109.9 billion, up 72% increase, the highest first nine-month total since 2022. But the number of deals inched up just 1.8% on-year, but yet the highest for the period since records began in 1980, LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) Deals Intelligence said in a report.
Of this target India M&As reached $91.2 billion, up 56.9% and domestic M&As grew 81.3% to $63.8 billion. Inbound M&As amounted to $27.4 billion, up 19.5% and outbound M&As surged to a more than a decade high of $18 billion, up 243.3%.
By value, France was the most active foreign acquirer nation capturing 36.5% market share of inbound M&As, while Italy was the most targeted nation overseas with 44.6% share of the outbound M&As. By number of deals, the US continues to be the most active nation doing cross-border deals.
Various sectors witnessed growth with energy & power, industrials and high technology dominating the deal mix, fueled by the industrial expansion, residential consumption and accelerating energy transformation, it said.
Energy & power witnessed an all-time high as deal value saw a four-fold increase a year ago, led by deals like Siemens Energy India spin-off, Schneider Electric’s full acquisition of its India operations, while industrials and high technology almost doubled in value.
Energy and power deals totaled $27.7 billion, a four-fold increase, and accounted for 25.2% market share. Industrials totaled $16.2 billion, up 95.3%, capturing 14.8% market share. High technology rounded out the top three sectors with 12.9% market share, totaling $14.2 billion, up 94.5%.
Despite a slow start in Q1, the equity capital markets gained momentum in the second and third quarters, bringing in total proceeds to $41 billion year-to-date, Elaine Tan of LSEG Deals Intelligence said.
Though overall issuance declined 17% in both value and number of issues, this remains the second-largest since records began in 1980. Initial public offerings raised $10.8 billion, up 17.5% on-year, marking the highest nine-month total on record, driven by billion-dollar offerings from HDB Financial and Hexaware Technologies. In contrast, last year’s largest IPO during the same period was Bajaj Housing at $781 million, as bigger IPOs were in Q4.
Follow-on offers, though lower than last year’s block trade-driven activity, remains the second strongest on record.
With a robust IPO pipeline from high-profile issuers including Tata Capital, LG Electronics, Wework India, the market is well-positioned to sustain momentum into year-end, Tan said.
Meanwhile, robust deal street had investment bankers earning a whopping $988.7 million in fees during the first nine months of 2025, up 12%.
Of this equity capital markets fees reached $438 million, down 4% from a year ago, while debt capital markets underwriting fees totaled $195.2 million, a 2% decline but syndicated lending fees grew 40% to $119.6 million and completed M&A fees rose 66% to $236 million.
Jefferies leads the overall i-banking fee sweepstakes taking home $85.9 million, or 8.7% wallet share of the fee pool.
Private equity-backed M&As amounted to $16.4 billion, up 67.2, making it the highest first nine-month total since 2022.
Equity capital markets raised $41 billion so far this year, down 17.4%. Of this Initial public offerings raised $10.8 billion, up 17.5% compared to the same period in 2024, marking the highest first nine-month totals since records began in 1980, despite a 5.2% decline on-year in number of IPOs and two issues were above $1 billion. Follow-on offerings, accounted for 70% of overall ECM proceeds, raised $28.8 billion, down 28.6%.
Primary bond offerings raised $77.9 billion, up 16.5% and the highest year-to-date total since records began in 1980.