Two Indian Business Giants Make Recent Acquisitions

Just as you may not know that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú is the world's third richest man, the Indian business giants currently acquiring companies around the world as the Indian economy expands into the global market may not yet be on your radar. But they will be. Two major purchases making news in recent weeks have brought them into the spotlight.

In the question of international acquisitions, currently, the Indian market has a "traditional" economy, just as China has had, and while Indian investors are reaching out into the global economy, international acquisitions in the Indian market face a number of limitations. In an editorial on Wal-Mart's global expansion recently, India Daily said that it was likely that Wal-Mart in India would be limited to less than 50% ownership of a subsidiary in that country, while in China ownership is closer to 100%. Nevertheless, these Indian investors are continuing their companies' "nation building" traditions overseas.

Aditya Birla, headed by Kumar Mangalam Birla, has agreed to buy Canada's Novelis, an aluminum producer, while the Tata Group, run by Ratan Tata, had just made a successful bid for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, making the $13.1 billion acquisition "the biggest ever by an Indian company," according to the AP.

Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate of 96 companies, said that the purchase at nearly their top price came close to forcing a decision "between the good of shareholders and India's national pride."