Not long ago, any claim that Indian manufacturers could make acquisitions abroad would have been dismissed as wishful thinking. Cheap IT services and software development might some day make India a global player in the services industry but it had clearly missed the opportunity in manufacturing.
In recent months, though, India Inc has embarked on a shopping spree overseas and, surprisingly, the shoppers are top Indian companies that include a truck maker, a metals company, a pharmaceuticals company and an auto component manufacturer.
Tata Motors, India's biggest truck manufacturer, is buying Daewoo's truck business in Korea for $125 million; pharmaceuticals company Ranbaxy will pay about $60 million for the generics business of French company RPG Aventis; and metals manufacturer Hindalco, part of the Birla group, has acquired Mount Gordon Copper Mines in Australia. The list goes on: Bharat Forge signed a memorandum of undertaking on November 21 to buy Carl Dan Peddinghaus (CDP) of Germany for about $30 million; Sundaram Fasteners acquired Dana Spicer in Europe; and petrochemicals company Reliance has made a $211 million bid for Flag Telecom. In addition, two Indian IT companies announced smaller acquisitions last month: I Flex will buy US company SuperSolutions for $11.5