Amarchand Mangaldas picked up almost one third of 33 initial public offering (IPO) mandates in the first quarter of 2010, while Crawford Bayley, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra and Khaitan & Co together bagged another 50 per cent of instructions.

Amarchand advised companies on ten IPOs and acted for the underwriters in one instruction.

Domestic firm Crawford Bayley was placed second behind Amarchand on Legally India's first IPO league table in 2010, with JSA and Luthra & Luthra in joint third place with four mandates each.

All three firms acted on four IPOs each. Crawford Bayley was the company counsel on all four mandates, while JSA and Luthra received two company mandates and two mandates from the underwriters.

In the category of international firms, Dorsey & Whitney was the sole firm that found its way into the top ten and to advise on more than one mandate.

Dorsey & Whitney's US offices picked up three mandates whereas its Sydney office was engaged in the public disposal of state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation's (NMDC) shares.
 
A mix of 33 smaller and larger companies resorted to fund-raising through capital markets in the last three months.

Some of the largest were the nine IPOs of Oberoi Realty, NMDC, SJVN, Bajaj Corp, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, SKS Microfinance, Ramky Infrastructure, Raheja Universal and Avantha Power and Infrastructure.

The Mumbai offices of Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners acted on the Rs 1000 to Rs 1200 crore Oberoi Realty IPO as company and domestic underwriter counsel respectively. Shearman & Sterling Singapore advised the Kotak Mahindra Capital and Enam Securities in the real estate developer's bid to raise money.

A total of four law firms - Crawford Bayley & Co, S&R Associates, Gide Loyrette Nouel, and Dorsey & Whitney - were involved in NMDC's IPO that followed the Government’s decision to raise $2.2bn by divesting 8.38 per cent of its equity in the iron ore producer.

Crawford Bayley won the NMDC disinvestment bidding process and advised the Government as domestic counsel and Gide Loyrette Nouel acted as international legal counsel to the Government of India, while S&R Associates led as domestic legal counsel to the book running lead managers with Dorsey & Whitney as international legal bankers' counsel.

Government-owned hydropower operator SJVN (Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam) appointed FoxMandal Little Noida as company counsel for its Rs 410 crore ($92m) 10 per cent disinvestment while AZB's Noida office and K&L Gates Singapore acted for the bankers.

SKS Microfinance engaged both the Mumbai and Hyderabad offices of Amarchand as legal counsel in its plans to raise Rs 1,125 crore ($254m) through its IPO.

The domestic underwriter's role for SKS went to New Delhi-based S&R Associates, while Palo Alto-based firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati acted for the bankers internationally.
 
Hyderabad infrastructure and waste management solutions provider Ramky Infrastructure took in Trilegal as company counsel to raise around Rs 530 crore, while Luthra & Luthra and Dorsey & Whitney acted for domestic and international underwriters respectively.

Amarchand was company counsel and JSA domestic legal advisors to the bankers on the IPO by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, which aimed to raise between Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 3,500.

Cravath Swaine & Moore was the company's international counsel and Jones Day Singapore was the international counsel to the bankers on the deal.

Kanga & Co acted for Mumbai real estate developers Raheja Universal's Rs 850 crore listing, where Amarchand assisted the underwriters domestically and Clifford Chance provided international advice to the bankers.

Power and infrastructure company Avantha engaged Amarchand to raise around to Rs 1,250 crore via the public issue. Delhi start-up Axon Partners and Dorsey & Whitney acted for Citigroup Global Markets and the other underwriters in India and as to international law respectively.

Correction: The follow-on fast-track issue and Government divestment of NTPC, as reported on Legally India 22 January, was omitted in the original version of this story due to the prospectus not having been submitted to Sebi under fast-track procedures. This has now beed added with company adviser Amarchand, bank adviser Luthra and international counsel O'Melveny & Myers each accruing one more mandate.

Legally India will publish a more detailed analysis of the full 2009-10 financial year in IPOs soon.

IPO legal adviser rankings Q4 2009-10 financial year (1 January - 31 March 2010)

	Firm	Total mandates Q4 09-10	Company mandates Q4 09-10	Underwriter mandates Q4 09-10
1	Amarchand Mangaldas	11	10	1
2	Crawford Bayley	4	4	-
3	J Sagar Associates (JSA)	4	2	2
3	Luthra & Luthra	4	2	2
5	Dorsey & Whitney	4	-	4
6	Khaitan & Co	3	3	-
7	AZB & Partners	2	-	2
7	S&R Associates	2	-	2
9	Corporate Law Chambers India	2	2	-
9	Kanga & Co	2	2	-
11	Axon Partners	1	1 (Avantha Power and Infrastructure)	-
11	FoxMandal & Co	1	1 (SVJN)	-
11	Jones Day	1	1 (Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation)	-
11	New Delhi Law Offices	1	1 (Genus Paper Products)	-
11	O' Melveny & Myers	1	1 (NTPC)
11	Rajani Associates	1	1 (Technofab Engineering)	-
11	Thakkar Associates (Ahmedabad)	1	1 (Rushil Decor)	-
11	Trilegal	1	1 (Ramky Infrastructure)	-
11	Vaish Associates	1	1 (SEL Textiles)	-
20	Clifford Chance	1	- (Raheja Universal)	1 (Raheja Universal)
20	Pepper Hamilton	1	-	1 (Commercial Engineers and Body Builders)
20	DLA Piper	1	-	1 (You Broadband and Cable India)
20	Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati	1	-	1 (SKS Microfinance)
20	White & Case	1	-	1 (Hindustan Media Ventures)
20	Allen & Overy	1	-	1 (Bajaj Corp)
20	K&L Gates	1	-	1 (SVJN)
20	Cravath Swaine & Moore	1	-	1 (Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation)
20	Shearman & Sterling	1	-	1 (Oberoi Realty)
20	Gide Loyrette Nouel	1	-	1 (NMDC)

Methodology: legal advisers to all draft prospectuses filed with SEBI in the period 1 January - 31 March 2010. Ranked by total mandates, followed by company mandates.

Read the Q3 2009-10 rankings and the first half 2009-10 rankings.