Saturday, July 28, 2012

2010 was theirs! Is 2011?

FMCG Saw Some Heavy action on the M&A front last year. But, as The Industry matures and valuations rise, It’s The small-ticket Strategic Acquisitions that will drive the sector in 2011

If there was one sector that saw some heavy action on the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) front last year, it was fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). For the uninitiated, the total value of M&A deals ($797.83 million) in the sector in 2010 went up 16 times when compared to the 2009 figure ($47.94 million), and in fact, a whopping 23 times from the 2008 number ($33.97 million). Reason: India’s Rs.460 billion FMCG market remains highly fragmented with over 50% of it dominated by non-branded, unpackaged home made products. This certainly presents a tremendous opportunity for established brands, both domestic and multinational, to expand their reach across the country by pursuing inorganic growth strategies.

Several FMCG companies such as Dabur, Marico, Godrej Consumer Private Ltd. (GPCL) and Emami have already been snapping up companies or brands since 2010 to expand their sphere of activity. While GCPL did five outbound deals and one domestic deal in 2010, rivals Dabur and Marico forged two outbound deals each. In fact, a significant contributor to the growth registered in 2010 were outbound deals (domestic companies making acquisitions abroad). There were 18 outbound deals worth $506.90 million in 2010 as against four deals worth $45.5 million registered in 2009 and two deals totalling just $2 million in 2008. It was high valuations of local assets that drove the homegrown companies abroad. Considering this, there was certainly a rebound in M&A activity levels in FMCG in 2010. Companies which had postponed M&A activity in the past two years were clearly making up for the lost time in 2010. Sounds logical! But then, what about M&A’s in the sector in 2011? Does M&A activity in the sector continues to experience the same momentum as it was witnessing some six months ago?