Foreign Direct Investment and Strategic Partnerships: Cross Border Acquisitions between India and Africa

The African economy provides an investment opportunity for International players both in terms of procuring natural resources and opening up a potential one billion consumer market. Along with the vast investment potential, on the downside firms face challenges that come from investing into nations with corporate governance, infrastructure and regulatory environments that are not as conducive for investments as found in developed nations. In this paper, we study Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the form of cross border acquisitions made by Indian firms in Africa during the 2002 to 2010 time frame. We report on the growth of Indian investments into Africa, nature of investments during this period and short time cumulative abnormal returns (CARs). We select two large deals that were subsequently withdrawn, to understand the nature of issues that come up while Indian firms invest in Africa. The paper's findings provide possible avenues of partnerships through investment in Africa and the challenges associated with the same.