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M&A recovery hinted but AZB loses on biggest deals to Amarchand, TTA, DSK, in H1 league tables

 Nom nom nom, M&A pie
Nom nom nom, M&A pie
AZB & Partners dropped off data provider mergermarket’s half-yearly (H1) M&A value league table despite reporting the highest number of deals among the top ten Indian and foreign law firms on India-related deals.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ bounced back three places since the first quarter (Q1) of 2013 to top the table with a total deal value of over $6bn from 18 deals.

AZB’s 21 deals worth $939m earned the firm sixth spot among the Indian law firms scoring the biggest deals, while Harish Salve came in at a joint number 10 slot from the $379m Jet-Etihad deal, which also put Gagrats & Co and Economic Laws Practice (ELP) on the M&A map.

Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) on second place trumped Q1 value table toppers Platinum Partners and DSK Legal, respectively, at third and fourth.

Deal-wise

Amarchand’s biggest deals in H1 2013 were the $2.5bn buy of USA-based Cooper Tire & Rubber by India’s Apollo Tyres, and the $2.475bn sale by Videocon of its stake in a Mozambique gas field.

TTA earned its place after acting for Unilever on the biggest India deal this H1 – Unilever’s $3.5bn buy of 15 per cent stake in Hindustan Unilever – alongside UK magic circle best friend Linklaters. This was one of four deals worth $3.571bn done by TTA this H1.

Platinum Partners and DSK Legal, which were tied at the top of the value table in the first quarter (Q1) propelled by the $1.6bn sale of Strides Arcolab subsidiary sale to Mylan, were the only other Indian law firms which found a place on the value league table of the top Indian and foreign firms.

Count-wise

By volume, Khaitan & Co,Desai & Diwanji, Trilegal, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Tatva Legal and TTA followed AZB and Amarchand, while DSK and Platinum slipped off the table.

Khaitan & Co and Desai & Diwanji (D&D), which had trumped Amarchand in the value table in Q1 were at seventh and ninth place, respectively. 16 M&As done by Khaitan were worth $937m, while the same number done by D&D were worth $434m.

The Markets

There was a strong recovery in deal values this quarter, with announced deals in India surging to $7.7bn from 65 transactions – a 145.6 per cent increase in value over Q1 2013. Inbound M&A value jumped 190.4 per cent from Q1.

The consumer sector had the highest total value ($3.7bn from 11 deals), while the industrials and chemicals sector brought the most number of deals (41 deals worth $1.6bn ). Last year the I&C sector had dominated both deal count and deal value.

But despite the recovery from Q1, H1 2013 M&A totalled $10.9bn from 130 deals - the lowest opening half year since H1 2009, when 98 reported deals had added up to $7.8bn.

Note: The data is compiled by mergermarket on the basis of data supplied by law firms and press reports, but may exclude deals that were not disclosed by firms or where a client has not given permission to share a law firm’s involvement.

Mergermarket standard 2013 first-half M&A rankings, including foreign firms

VALUE ($bn)

VOLUME

Amarchand Mangaldas

6.158

AZB & Partners

21

Jones Day

4.009

Amarchand Mangaldas

18

Talwar Thakore & Associates

3.571

Khaitan & Co

16

Davis Polk & Wardwell

3.549

Desai & Diwanji

16

Linklaters

3.549

Trilegal

12

White & Case

2.868

DLA Piper

9

Simmons & Simmons

2.475

JSA

9

Sullivan & Cromwell

2.331

Tatva Legal

5

Herbert Smith Freehills

1.721

Jones Day

4

Platinum Partners

1.622

Talwar Thakore & Associates

4

DSK Legal

1.6

MNK law Offices

4

Mergermarket 2013 first-half M&A league table by value, Indian firms only

Rank   House Value ($m) Deal Count % Value change
H1 2012 H1 2013
1 1 Amarchand Mangaldas 6,158 18 -51.7%
- 2 Talwar Thakore & Associates 3,571 4 -
- 3 Platinum Partners 1,622 2 -
7 4 DSK Legal 1,600 1 24.8%
11 5 S&R Associates 1,271 2 38.2%
5 6 AZB & Partners 939 21 -64.3%
8 7 Khaitan & Co 937 16 -22.9%
23 8 Trilegal 633 12 93.0%
12 9 Desai & Diwanji 434 16 -47.6%
35 10= Economic Laws Practice 379 1 178.7%
- 10= Gagrats 379 1 -
- 10= Harish Salve 379 1 -

Mergermarket 2013 first-half M&A league table by volume, Indian firms only

Rank   House Value ($m) Deal Count Count change
H1 2012 H1 2013
4 1 AZB & Partners 939 21 5
2 2 Amarchand Mangaldas 6,158 18 -1
3 3 Khaitan & Co 937 16 -1
1 4 Desai & Diwanji 434 16 -11
8 5 Trilegal 633 12 5
7 6 J Sagar Associates 269 9 2
9 7 Tatva Legal 57 5 -2
- 8 Talwar Thakore & Associates 3,571 4 4
- 9 MNK Law Offices 65 4 4
6 10 K Law 0 3 -5
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