Expect deal environment to improve after budget, says Pankaj Chopda of Grant Thornton India

May 2019 has seen decreased deal activity compared to May 2018 with a 17 percent fall in volumes and an 83 percent drop in deal values. However, compared to April 2019, May saw a 6 percent increase in deal value. To discuss the trends in the mergers and acquisitions CNBC-TV18 spoke to Pankaj Chopda, director at Grant Thornton India.

Chopda said: "April 2018 there were two large deals which were reported — the Walmart-Flipkart transaction of $16 billion plus the Tata Steel and Bhushan Steel deal of $5.5 billion. So, if we exclude these two deals, we are looking at $5.5 billion versus a $4.5 billion, that is about an 18 percent decline. So, there has been a slowdown in the activity in the last few months largely attributable to investors waiting in for some kind of a stability on the political environment."

He added: "There is definitely slowdown in the activity which is very much evident if you look at the last 3-4 months the way the numbers have been showing up. It is expected now that there is a government in place and may be with July budget coming up, there would be more certainty as to the government's direction in terms of reforms and various things which should boost up the investment activity or the deal environment."