AZB & Partners
Amarchand Mangaldas has acted on 70 per cent of qualified institutional placements (QIPs) in the first half of this financial year, with international firms, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates and Crawford Bayley mopping up the rest.
AZB & Partners has promoted its first new partner after its Bangalore merger and vowed to grow its fledgling Chennai and Hyderabad presences after moving into a new office in Chennai.
Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners and Luthra & Luthra have benefited the most from the dash to hit the markets by month-end, as 16 companies filed draft initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses in the last two weeks.
AZB Mumbai partner Shuva Mandal led the team for DSP Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, which were mandated by the company for the share sale.
Lawyers in Clifford Chance's Gurgaon "knowledge centre" have earned 12,000 hours of work in the last financial year, according to the firm's annual report which was published this week.
AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co and Jones Day's Hong Kong office have advised Jai Balaji Industries on its proposed Rs 450 crore ($94m) qualified institutional placement (QIP), which is yet to be announced.
Kochhar & Co's Singapore and Delhi offices and AZB & Partners advised news wire Bloomberg and media company UTV on their joint venture to launch a new co-branded Indian business TV channel.
Desai & Diwanji has scored the first instruction for the merged Tata Quippo towers business, after having originally advised Quippo Telecom on its joint venture (JV) with Tata Teleservices, which was advised by AZB & Partners.
AZB & Partners Delhi has hired an indirect tax partner and his team from accountants KPMG, hoping to grow the tax advisory business at the law firm which will compete in the traditional domain of accountancy firms.
India's largest mortgage lender Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) has issued India's first ever dual warrants and bonds instrument, which was structured by AZB & Partners, Amarchand Mangaldas and Linklaters Singapore to raise Rs 4000 crore ($822m) for the company.
AZB, DSK and Trilegal have done well in Asia Pacific private equity deal rankings despite heavily depressed values and volumes this year.
AZB & Partners is relocating one of its Mumbai partners to Bangalore to ease the office's integration process after the merger with Anup Shah's local practice last month.
Indian law firms are famously enamoured with the letters of the alphabet. But is it rubbing off on the Indian tax office?
The Income Tax Department raided the Mumbai offices of ALMT Legal and AZB & Partners late last week looking for information related to clients and offshore transactions. The raids were not related to either of the law firms' own tax positions.
For an Indian firm, going under the wing of an international firm is not necessarily as appealing as some might suppose and could even be downright dangerous.
AZB & Partners has merged with Anup Shah's Bangalore law firm, doubling AZB's size in the city, giving it two new bases in Chennai and Hyderabad and winning a new office managing partner.
Kanga & Co Mumbai partner Dhaval Vussonji is leading the team for the original bidder Bharati Shipyard, which already owns a 19.5 per cent stake in Great Offshore.
Despite meagre pickings, Desai & Diwanji, Khaitan & Co, AZB & Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas have topped an M&A league table, together advising on 30 Indian deals worth a total of $9.4bn in the last six months.
Platinum Partners has joined the team of legal advisers on the MTN – Bharti Airtel merger talks alongside four other firms on what could be India's largest cross-border deal to date with a value of around $23bn (Rs 110,000 crore).
J Sagar Associates (JSA) has doubled its size in Bangalore by merging with M&C Partners, which was started up by two partners and their team from AZB & Partners one year ago.