Amarchand Mangaldas has reported the most M&A activity among Indian law firms this year, according to data provider mergermarket’s Q1-Q3 rankings.

The firm came out on top of the league tables in terms of value and volume of deals and was also the only Indian law firm to make it into the pan-Asia Pacific (APAC) league tables by value, in 20th rank (four up from the same time last year).

Amarchand acted on 30 deals worth $9.7bn over the last three quarters of this year, with the $2.4bn Ambuja-Holcim merger, the $2.47bn Videocon Mozambique stake sale, and the $2.5bn Apollo-Cooper takeover being the largest.

Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) comes a distant second, but still trumped AZB & Partners’ 30 deals worth $2bn with its four deals worth $3.57bn. This figure was no improvement over what TTA docketed by the end of the 2013 half-year (H1), having acted alongside UK best friend Linklaters on the biggest India deal of H1 2013 – Unilever’s $3.5bn acquisition of an HUL stake.

The third highest deals ranker, Khaitan & Co, reported 22 deals worth a total of $1.9bn to take it to fourth place after AZB on the value table.

Trilegal did 14 small deals worth $687m and came in fifth by volume, but second-last by value table. The law firm would focus strongly on strengthening its corporate practice, explained Delhi partner Anand Prasad recently during partnership promotions.

J Sagar Associates’ (JSA) M&A values were even smaller with $529m reported from 13 total deals, therefore falling off the value table which had Platinum Partners, DSK Legal, S&R Associates, Kochhar & Co, Trilegal and Vaish Associates leading the chasing pack.

The 10 firms on the biggest Indian deals together acted on 111 deals worth $24bn. There were 155 deals reported overall.

Among foreign firms, Simmons & Simmons, Jones Day, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Linklaters and White & Case worked on the largest aggregate value of Indian deals.

By the end of Q2 a strong recovery in M&A activity was hinted globally, with the picture getting better this Q3 end. APAC witnessed $259.7bn worth of deals during Q1 – Q3 2013, down just 1.7% by value compared to Q1 – Q3 2012, according to mergermarket’s report.

In the APAC region the strongest sectors continued to be energy, mining and utilities followed by the consumer sector, and the TMT sector.

2013 Q1-Q3 Indian law firm M&A deal rankings by value

2013 Q1-3 Indian firms M&A by volume

Foreign firms India deals: 2013 Q1-Q3

Source: mergermarket