LegallyIndia.com

Luthra & Luthra has advised Abbott Laboratories in its 20 per cent open offer of the Indian subsidiary of Solvay Pharmaceuticals as part of the €5.2bn global acquisition of the Belgium-based pharma company.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai office and AZB & Partners Delhi have advised on Goldman Sachs's private equity arm $115m investment in conglomerate Max India.

Nishith Desai Associates and J Sagar Associates (JSA) have acted for Orbit Corporation and the investors respectively in a Rs 165 crore private equity (PE) investment in Orbit for a township development.   

Khaitan & Co is the domestic counsel for Mahindra Forgings Limited and Jones Day Singapore the international legal advisors to the qualified institutional placement (QIP) filed by Mahindra & Mahindra owned forging and auto component company.

Naik and Naik has won for Anil Ambani owned Reliance MediaWorks against Ocher Studios, which is promoted by the family of South India film star Rajnikanth, forbidding the studio to create third party rights in the film 'Sultan – The Warrior' under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996.

Induslaw has acted as sole advisor to education provider Educomp Solutions, which acquired Studyplaces.com from Zaptive Internet Services.

Desai & Diwanji and Rajani Associates have advised Motilal Oswal Private Equity Advisers on its Rs 40 crore investment in automobile component maker Minda Industries.

AZB & Partners has been instructed on Bharti Airtel's $10.7bn bid for the African business of Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain, with Herbert Smith and Linklaters scoring the international advisory mandates for the Indian company's third attempt to enter the continent.

M Dhruva & Partners, which spun out of J Sagar Associates earlier this month, has acted on its first independent litigation matter opposite Crawford Bayley, directing the arrest of a ship on behalf of its Hong Kong-based client Star Matrix.

ALMT Legal in Bangalore and Malaysian law firm Zuraidah Naziha & Fadly advised Indian developer Davanam Constructions and Ascenteus Holdings of Malaysia in their $350m joint venture hotel project.

FoxMandal Little has acted as lender's counsel on the Rs 2224 crores ($515mn) ONGC Tripura Power Company project finance documentation acting for Power Finance Corporation.

The firm was instructed in September 2009, with Delhi senior partner B N Banerjee, and senior associate Rajesh Sehgal and associate Milli Chatterjee leading the team.

According to a press release from the firm, no other law firms were involved in the transaction.

Sehgal said in the release: "It was challenging, since ONGC being a Navratna company is on the Board of the OTPC. For us it was the first time we had done a deal with ONGC and the captive natural gas based power stations interconnected with the power project."

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) received Rs 2,224 crore in debt funding from Power Finance Corp (PFC) for its proposed 700 MW power plant at Tripura.

Desai & Diwanji and Tatva Legal, with Davis Polk & Wardwell and Richards Butler advised on private equity house Quadrangle Capital and others' $300m investment in India's second largest operator of telecoms towers Tower Vision India.

A divison bench of the Delhi High Court has widened across India its April 2009 judgment that service tax on commercial rentals is ultra vires the Finance Act, in a victory for law firm LexCounsel.

Luthra & Luthra has closed the Rs 2400 crores ($521m) GVK Power (Goindwalsahib) project finance fundraising acting for IDBI Bank and a consortium of 12 others as lender's counsel.

Luthra & Luthra's projects team was led by Mumbai partner Vijaya Rao (pictured), assisted by managing associate Bikash Jhawar, and associates Pulkit Sharma and Sneha Jha.