An INR400 billion deal collapsed at its last stage after fears on US and UK anti-bribery laws threatened mergers and acquisitions in India. According to Sameer Tapia, Senior Partner at ALMT Legal said the private equity fund had slumped during the final stages of investment in the country.
Tapia said, "These transactions were falling under anti-bribery laws of the UK. The PE fund dropped the deal."
The frequency of collapsed deals had increased in India. This was after investors feared to end up on the wrong side of anti-bribery legislation in the US and the UK. The anti-bribery law aimed to punish companies from paying any bribes for global subsidiaries. In the first seven months of 2013, M&A deals had dropped 38% to USD15.43 billion.
An executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers India, Sanjeev Krishan said that "We have seen private equity as well as strategic partners call off many deals in the retail, agrobusiness, green energy and business services sectors owing to issues relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
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