China has historically been the favourite among emerging markets for global funds; however, this year, India saw 235 deals amounting to $37.7 billion, highest ever for the country, beating China
New Delhi: For the first time in 20 years, India has got more foreign inflows in 2018 than China. According to a report in Economic Times, this year India saw more than $38 billion of inbound deals compared with China’s $32 billion, buoyed by stable fundamentals, a bankruptcy code and fresh opportunities in sunrise sectors.
China has historically been the favourite among emerging markets for global funds; however, this year, India saw 235 deals amounting to $37.7 billion, highest ever for the country, beating China.
China’s trade standoff with the United States emerges as the main reason why the country has lost its top spot.
“India has had a busy M&A calendar in 2018 and we will continue to see good traction in inbound M&As,” said Kalpana Morparia, chief executive for South and Southeast Asia at JP Morgan Chase & Co.
“Given India’s demographics, the ecommerce story, the way India has leapfrogged the several stages of technological evolution, we expect a lot of activity in the technology and financial services space going forward,” he added.
Sonjoy Chatterjee, chairman of Goldman Sachs in India told ET that global investors generally focus on India despite short-term uncertainty in the political climate, be it state or federal elections.
The biggest deal that drove all the foreign inflows was Walmart’s buyout of Flipkart for $16 billion.
Apart from e-commerce, another reason for inbound foreign inflow was asset divestment, stemming from the new bankruptcy framework.
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