Devendra Kumar Malhotra

If a large chunk of your company’s fixed asset register is a building, a plant, or heavy machinery, chances are a single depreciation rate for the whole asset is quietly overstating or understating your numbers. Fixed assets componentization solves exactly this problem. In simple terms, it means splitting a single…

Every M&A deal has two advisors sitting on opposite sides of the table, and they are not doing the same job. A buy-side M&A advisor works for the company writing the cheque. A sell-side M&A advisor works for the company being sold. Confuse the two roles, and a promoter can…

Every year, hundreds of Indian companies discover too late that an incorrect business valuation report can trigger tax penalties, stall an IPO, or unwind an entire acquisition. Business valuation is the process of determining what a company, its shares, or its assets are actually worth. In India, this is far…

Most acquisitions fail after the deal closes, not before it. A widely-cited KPMG study found that 83% of acquisitions fail to boost shareholder returns, and Harvard Business Review’s long-running research puts the broader M&A failure rate at 70–90%. Post-merger integration, not deal structuring, is usually where that value gets destroyed.…

By Devendra Kumar Malhotra, Registered Valuer under the Companies Act, 2013 and Wealth Tax Act, Sapient Services Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi Last updated: 1 October 2026 The mandatory CA-certified audit is gone. The risk it covered is not. For a GST audit in 2026, officers start from your return data,…