Led by Bharti Airtel, India Inc’s outbound mergers and acquisitions deals tally rose to USD 20.76 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal from a meagre USD 527.8 million in the previous year, a study said.

“The rise in outbound deals provides clear evidence that the Indian industry is consolidating, and at the same time aggressively working on global expansion,” the study by Assocham said.

Total 59 outbound M&A took place during April-September 2010-11 against 27 in the same period of the last financial year.

The study said the total number of M&A deals (outbound, inbound and domestic) increased from 86 in first half of 2009 to 141 during April-September 2010.

Of the 141 M&A, 68 were domestic deals and 14 inbound.

In value terms, the overall M&A deals rose 345.16 per cent to USD 52.6 billion during April-September 2010 from USD 11.8 billion in the year-ago period.

The major mergers and acquisitions occurred in telecom, metal and mining and energy sector, the chamber said.

Among the major outbound deals during the period India’s telecom major Bharti Airtel completed a deal to buy Kuwait-based Zain Telecom’s African business for USD 10.7 billion.

In metal and mining sector Adani Enterprises, India’s largest importer of coal, bought coal mine assets in Queensland from Australia’s coal-to-liquid company Linc Energy for USD 2.7 billion.