2010 - Year of M&A in India

The year 2010 will see lots of action within Indian market in terms of mergers and acquisitions. Indian companies being cash rish will get into buying spree hunting for companies in India and oversees. My predictions for M&A this year are as follows:
1. Telecom: Indian telecom market will see some consolidation. The price war cannot continue and large players will look at smaller companies which either has good technology or unexplored customer base. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Tata might look at acquiring some of the smaller players in the market to expand their presence in some of the rural or local markets. With Shyam telecom entering the market as MTS, there is a possibility of other infratel players trying to partner and expand their presence in Indian market. I think RCOM might not have enough cash to do acquisition, unless they dilute their stake. Bharti is already on the hunt for a global acquisition. We might hear some news on that front soon.
2. IT: Indian IT players are cash rich and will go on an hunting spree this year too. Companies might look at expanding their presence in Europe and some of the middle-east markets. Hence the companies having presence in these regions will be an ideal target. With economy showing signs of improvement, the confidence level of Indian IT company is growing as their projections for next few quarters are very high. Indian mid-tier companies might go for some acquisitions in US, looking at the opportunities for SMBs in US.
3. Financial industry: Indian banking industry will see a big change this year as there could be consolidation in Public Sector Banks in India. There are large number of Insurance, MF, brokerage firms in India. 2010 will test their sustainability in the market.
Apart from these there could be some action in pharma and auto industry. Auto industry is going to a high growth industry in India this year. As companies look for expanding their product portfolio (like M&M entering 2 wheeler market in a big way), there could be some big acquisition or JV in this space.