India dealmaking sees long-term bets despite global volatility

Mumbai: India is expected to sustain strong M&A momentum, including cross-border deals, as investors take a long-term view despite macro headwinds, top executives said at the Mint India Investment Summit.“It’s interesting how the last three quarters over 2025 have shown the ability of investors to digest any volatility, price it in if required and proceed with M&As as they see sense in it over a 5–10-year horizon,” Devarajan Nambakam, co-head of India investment banking for Goldman Sachs Group, said at the summit last week.“This is probably going to be tested more this year than last, but the ability of investors to see through these volatilities has been the biggest mindset shift.”With India being a robust growth economy, there is demand for capital to accelerate this pace and for shareholders looking to monetize their stake among others, he added.“From a supply perspective, it’s safe to say that almost no pool of capital is unavailable in India be it strategic capital, private equity, private credit or hybrid capital. Today, the quantum of the capital that is available is higher than we’ve seen.

This natural matching of demand and supply has driven momentum and created resilience despite any geopolitical undercurrents,” Nambakam said.Ashish Jhaveri, managing director & head of India investment banking, Jefferies, also alluded to the evolving M&A landscape in the country. “In the early 2000s, India was more about foreigners looking to get market access, and private equity funds had just begun coming into the country.

We had the vision but lacked the ability to execute at scale. Even capital was expensive and not abundantly available,” he noted.“But a lot has changed over the years.