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The M&A in Asia Pacific market has been booming if the latest numbers from Dealogic are to be believed. M&A deals grew by 50 per cent in the first half of 2007 to touch "a record $253 billion", reports Reuters (Via Mint), quoting Dealogic stats. Australia led the region, excluding Japan, with deals worth $76 billion, while China ($55 billion) and India ($39 billion) followed.

Dealogic also has the league tables of investment banks in the region. The top five were UBS, which led the table by far with deals worth $62.4 billion, followed by JPMorgan ($46.5 billion), Macquarie ($34.6 billion), Deutsche Bank ($32.8 billion) and Morgan Stanley ($32.8 billion).

Pivate equity accounted for 11 per cent of the deal activity in H1 compared to 8 per cent a year ago. Globally, PE funds account for 20 per cent of the M&A deals.

Some of largest deals involving India were Vodafone Group's $12.9 billion acquisition of 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar, Tata Steel’s $12-billion buy of Corus, and Hindalco's $5.9 billion deal with Canada’s Novelis Inc.