Released on = May 25, 2007, 3:09 am

Press Release Author = Evalueserve

Industry =

Press Release Summary = Evalueserve and Greenfield Online conducted a survey with
100 top Indian executives to understand their opinions on the recent mergers and
acquisitions by Indian organizations

Press Release Body = Gurgaon, India, May 24, 2007: Evalueserve and Greenfield Online
conducted a survey with 100 top Indian executives to understand their opinions on
the recent mergers and acquisitions by Indian organizations. Aimed at senior finance
and strategy executives, and MnA analysts, the survey results throw up some
interesting insights. Most executives feel that the acquisition trends reflect India
Inc.'s global leadership aspirations, and that MnA is an integral part of companies'
globalization strategies. Access to best-in-class technologies and the business
imperative to achieve critical scale were also felt to be key drivers of these
acquisitions. While 56% of survey respondents felt that these deals were overvalued,
most of them went on to highlight that given the strategic aspirations of the
acquirers, they did the right thing by moving aggressively on these buy-outs. In
short, companies have little choice but to pay more than the 'true value' in a
highly competitive bid atmosphere, hoping that they would be able to over-achieve on
value realization.

Meeting international regulatory compliance requirements is expected to be the most
important challenge ahead of the acquirers. While integration is also viewed as a
key challenge, an overwhelming 83% of survey respondents express confidence in
companies' ability to manage such issues. 'New-economy' industries such as IT/ITeS,
telecom, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology are expected to be the nurturing ground
for future MnA activity. Most interestingly, such MnA activities are seen to be
indicators of the Indian growth story, and serve to boost market sentiments. With
the economy set to grow at close to double digits this year, these deals are viewed
to be evidences of Indian corporate houses' coming of age. While less than 40% of
respondents doubt the ability of Indian business houses to create adequate value
from these acquisitions, a resounding 90% of them feel that such trends are
symptomatic of their aggressive global aspirations. Over 60% of respondents felt
that such deals demonstrated a high growth phase in the Indian economy.

When Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus accepted the $ 13 billion takeover bid from India
based Tata Steel, questions were raised around the prices and rationale. Many
analysts and industry experts felt the buy-out price to be highly unreasonable and
inflated. But, the largest Indian deal ever, got the 56th biggest steel producer
Tata Steel to leap-frog from the 56th to the 5th position in the global steel
sweepstakes. Steel giant Mittal Steel's buy-out of Arcelor for $ 32.2 billion
redefined the industry further. India-born steel tycoon L. N. Mittal portrayed the
ambitions of new age companies aspiring to achieve global leadership. It's not just
steel. This trend is evident in FMCG, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, paper,
oil & gas, chemicals, IT & ITeS, automotive, and hospitality sectors to name a few.
Would this over-exuberance lead to stormy days for these companies or are these
initial indications of consolidation and signs of emerging giants?

About Evalueserve

Evalueserve offers high-quality knowledge services in Investment Research, Business
Research, Intellectual Property, Market Research, and Data and Financial Analytics
to clients worldwide. Founded in 2000, it has more than 1,500 employees, with
operations centres in India, China and Chile, and a strong sales presence across all
major global locations. Evalueserve won several awards in 2006, including Red
Herring Asia Top 100, NASSCOM IT Innovation Award for Business Model Innovation and
the Deloitte Fast 500 APAC Award.

To learn more about Evalueserve, please visit www.Evalueserve.com

About Greenfield Online

Greenfield Online, headquartered in Wilton, CT, is a leading independent provider of
Internet survey solutions to the global marketing research industry and industry.
Through its subsidiary in Europe, Ciao GmbH, the company operates its European
Internet survey solutions business as well as one of Europe's leading comparison
shopping portals, Ciao.com. The company has built and actively manages one of the
industry's broadest reaching respondent communities comprised of Internet and
wireless panels and a proprietary Real-Time SamplingT communications channel. Our
Ciao.com shopping portal allows consumers to write and access detailed reviews about
millions of products and compare prices when they are ready to buy


Web Site = http://www.evalueserve.com

Contact Details = Evalueserve Pvt. Ltd.
2nd Floor, Unitech World-Cyber Park
Jharsa, Sector-39
Gurgaon122002 Haryana
India
Phone No: +91 124 4120000
Fax:+91 124 4063430
Email: prcc@evalueserve.com