9. Sterlite-Asarco: $1.8 billion

Anil Agarwal-led Sterlite Industries Ltd's $1.8 billion Asarco LLC buyout deal is the ninth biggest-ever merger and acquisitions deal involving an Indian firm, and the largest so far in 2009.

This is despite the deal size falling by almost $1 billion, from a projected estimate of $2.6 billion in May 2008, due to devaluation of mining assets and a sharp fall in copper prices.

Sterlite, the Indian arm of the London-based Vedanta Resources Plc, acquired Asarco in March 2008.