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Luthra draws level with Amarchand in Q1 2010-11 IPO stakes

Dalal street
Dalal street
Luthra & Luthra jointly topped Legally India's quarterly IPO league tables for the first time alongside Amarchand Mangaldas over the first quarter of the 2010-11 financial year with five mandates each while AZB & Partners slotted into third place.

Luthra & Luthra found itself at the top of this quarter's table between 1 April and 30 June with a total of five public offering instructions while acting as company counsel in three mandates and advising the banks in two.

For the full 2009-10 financial year Amarchand acted on more than twice as many IPOs with 39 as its closest competitor Luthra.

Luthra & Luthra managing partner Rajiv Luthra said: "It is, indeed, always encouraging to be at the top of league tables and we certainly intend to keep that pace but be increasingly selective and definitely not compromise our quality, to service volumes. The aim is to do 'superior' deals and do them well, rather than trying to do every deal in the market."
Some of the bigger IPO’s filed during this quarter:
Ind-Barath Power Infra Private Limited
A power generation company with operational capacity of 300 mw plans to raise Rs 1,000 Crores through public issue for its upcoming power plants with a capacity of over 1,300 mw.
Legal advisors to this issue - AZB, Luthra & Luthra and Jones Day.

Engineers India Limited
State-run Engineer India that provides engineering consultancy services hopes to mop-up at least Rs 1,000 crore in a follow-on public offer through which the government holdings is likely to reduce by 80.4 per cent.

Legal advisors - Luthra & Luthra and DLA Piper Singapore.

Standard Chartered PLC
The first ever IDR (Indian Depository Receipts) issue launched, with India’s largest foreign bank's proposed IDR sale of 240m units having planned to raise over $ 500m on the stock exchange.
Legal advisors – Amarchand Mangaldas acted as domestic company adviser, Talwar Thakore & Associates led for the underwriters on Indian laws while best friend Linklaters along with Slaughter and May advised on the international legal compliances with respect to UK and Hong Kong laws.

One97 Communications Private Limited
Provider of value added services to telecom service providers, consumers and enterprises; One97 Communications plans to raise Rs 120 crore through IPO for procurement of telecom equipment and software installation.
Legal advisors – AZB & Partners as corporate legal counsel and underwriter’s counsel Dorsey & Whitney.

Greatship (India) Limited
The wholly owned subsidiary of GE Shipping provides energy and offshore services to exploration and production operators internationally and hopes to raise Rs 400-crore through its IPO.
Legal advisors - Amarchand Mangaldas acted as company counsel while Luthra & Luthra and Jones Day advised the underwriters on domestic and international laws respectively.

Orient Green Power Company Limited
The company is engaged in electricity generation from renewable sources and plans to raise Rs 900 crore via IPO to fund its expansion projects.
Legal advisors - Luthra led as company counsel, Amarchand and Dorsey & Whitney advised the lead managers.

Milestone Capital Advisors Limited
The second Private Equity (PE) firm after IL&FS PE to get listed on the stock exchange in India, Milestone Capital filed its offer documents that would lead to 30 per cent stake dilution. The proceeds of the capital raised would be utilised for floating small & medium enterprises (SME) and infrastructure focused funds.
Sole legal advisor – Amarchand Mangaldas.

Amarchand drew level with Luthra & Luthra by a whisker with the maiden Standard Chartered IDR (Indian Depository Receipt) issue that brought its tally to five. The IDR public issue red herring prospectus was filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) on 10 May, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) website.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partner Prashant Gupta said: "It was an interesting quarter. We completed the Standard Chartered IDR, as well as the Essar Energy LSE listing, which were unique deals. The Hindustan Media Ventures IPO in early July did quite well, and we have completed a few QIPs as well this month."

AZB & Partners was the third-busiest domestic firm having advised on two out of a total 17 offer documents filed with SEBI during the period from April to June 2010.

Meanwhile, international law firms Jones Day and Dorsey & Whitney have also been pegged as equals with two IPO international law advisory roles each.  

The 2010-11 financial year to date has showed a sign of strong recovery with 17 public offers, compared to the near-drought in capital markets fundraisings during the quieter first quarter of 2008-2009 when only three offers were listed by SEBI.

"The beginning of the last year was quiet for everyone. It was time for us to look within and we concentrated on building our team," commented Rajiv Luthra on the practice that is led by Delhi partner Madhurima Mukherjee. "We have seen frantic activity in the first quarter of this year and our investment in capability building has come to bear," added Luthra.

However, there were nevertheless brakes on the overall activity, explained Amarchand's Gupta. "A number of deals have been impacted by the new SEBI 25 per cent listing rule, as well as general uncertainty in the global markets as a result of the European debt crisis," he said. "But we hope that this quarter is more stable."

Amarchand was the domestic corporate counsel to Tecpro Systems, Milestone Capital Advisors, Greatship (India) and the Standard Chartered IDR (Indian Depository Receipts) IPO issue. The firm also acted as legal advisors to the underwriters on Indian laws only on the issue of Orient Green Power Company.

Luthra & Luthra, on the other hand gave legal advice on the divestment of stakes in public sector unit (PSU) Engineers India Limited besides acting as legal counsels to companies such as Chennai based Orient Green Power Company and NKG Infrastructure Private Limited.

Orient Green Power seeks to raise Rs 900 crores via initial public offer to fund its expansion plans.

On the IPOs of Ind-Barath Power Infra and Greatship (India) Limited, Luthra & Luthra advised the underwriter banks.

AZB & Partners led for One97 Communications Private Limited and Ind-Barath Power Infra Private Limited on their public offerings as domestic legal advisors.

In the category of foreign firms, Jones Day advised the banks on international laws in the public offering made by Greatship (India) and Ind-Barath Power Infra Private Limited.

Meanwhile, Dorsey & Whitney acted as international legal counsels to the underwriters on the issues of One97 Communications Private Limited and Orient Green Power Company.


Other active IPO law firms on one deal each included Crawford Bayley (Mandhana Industries – Rs 108 crore), J Sagar Associates (Shirdi Industries Limited), Khaitan & Co (Jain Infraprojects - Rs 300 crore), Rajani Associates (RPP Infra Projects Limited) and Talwar Thakore & Associates (Standard Chartered PLC).

Similarly, international firms like DLA Piper (Engineers India Limited), and Slaughter and May and Linklaters for Standard Chartered PLC, each bagged a single IPO.

On four offers filed with SEBI regional capital market advisors were involved – Zenith India Lawyers (Planet 41 Mobi-Venture), Sudhir M Mehta (VMS Industries Limited- Rs 108 crore), M R Patel & Associates (Rajputana Stainless - Rs 108 crore) and Mindspright Legal (Shekhawati Poly- Yarn Private Limited).

Rank Firm Total Mandates Company Mandates Bank Mandates
1 Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. 5 4 1
2 Luthra & Luthra Law Offices 5 3 2
3 AZB & Partners 2 2
4 Dorsey and Whitney  2
2
4 Jones Day 2
2
Crawford Bayley & Co. 1 1
J Sagar Associates 1 1
Khaitan & Co 1 1
Rajani Associates 1 1
Slaughter and May 1
1
Talwar Thakore & Associates 1
1
Linklaters LLP 1
1
DLA Piper Singapore Pte. Ltd. 1
1
Mindspright Legal 1 1
Sudhir M. Mehta, Advocate 1 1
M. R. Patel & Associates. 1 1
ZENITH INDIA LAWYERS 1 1

Methodology: legal advisers to all draft prospectuses filed with SEBI and ROC in the quarter period 1 April 2010 - 30 June 2010. Ranked by total mandates, followed by company mandates.

Also read the full 2009-10 financial year IPO rankings, Q4 rankings and individual mandates, as well as the Q3 2009-10 rankings and the first half 2009-10 rankings.

Read the full 2009-10 financial year QIP rankings for more top capital markets firms.

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