Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance Singapore capital markets and India group partner Rahul Guptan is set to join White & Case, according to two sources with knowledge of his move.

“StanChart sells PE portfolio for $1 billion to Intermediate’s arm: The portfolio comprises private equity investments in companies across Southeast Asia, India, China and South Korea,” reported Mint.

Chemicals company BASF India has sold its leather chemicals business to Stahl India Private Limited for Rs. 197.63 crores (USD 30.35 million) through a slump sale, as reported by Livemint and Business Standard.

2001 GLC Mumbai graduate and Clifford Chance London senior associate Amer Siddiqui has joined Simmons & Simmons as a partner in its capital markets team.

Samvad Partners acted for Delhivery Private Limited on its Rs 650 crore ($100m) investment by private equity giant Carlyle Group along with Tiger Global.

SC serves notice on state, centre to probe cow vigilantism: “A number of PILs were filed by political leaders and activists in High Courts across the states and in Supreme Court demanding strong action against the cow vigilantes. One such PIL was filed by Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawalla in Supreme Court in August this year.”– Indian Express

Clifford Chance to test applicants with video game: Details not disclosed, but “… the game tests the tenacity and perseverance of potential trainees, as well as how they respond under pressure…  The video game is expected to be rolled out to trainee candidates next year if the trial is a success. It will run alongside the firm’s existing psychometric tests.” – Lawyer2b (requires free registration to read in full)

Sahara tells SC it will deposit Rs 200 cr: “The hearing has been advanced on the request of the Sahara Group after its senior counsel Kapil Sibal made a mention on Thursday before the bench of Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar… Seeking that the hearing be advanced from October 24 to October 21, Mr Sibal told the court that Rs. 200 crore that the Sahara Group was to deposit by October 23 would be deposited on Friday.” –  NDTV

Could the CCI throw a spanner into the plans of Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Uber and MakeMyTrip? – “The point is not that webcompanies have engaged in unfair practices. On the contrary, in the race for acquiring customers, they have slashed prices to an extent that consumers have never had it so good. Still, the digital business as a whole and some Internet companies have become big enough and important enough to warrant the CCI’s attention. Particularly, if there are more M&As, as is likely. ‘The argument that online business is still nascent and can therefore be ignored may not hold water in every sector. It’s growing very fast and many sectors are touched by it. So, at some point, the CCI may soon look at Internet businesses closely,’ said Avimukt Dar, partner, IndusLaw, a law firm.” – Mint

How lax IP laws fuel an open source-ish part of the Shenzhen economic miracle #MakeInChina: “The shanzhai era in consumer electronics gradually faded as incomes rose and brand-name smartphones became more affordable. But it enforced a culture of knowledge-sharing among manufacturers, wherein no single product design is sacred. Lindtner compares the culture of Shenzhen’s manufacturing ecosystem to the open-source movement among software developers. Much like how programmers will freely share code for others to improve upon, Shenzhen manufacturers now see hardware and product design as something that can be borrowed freely and altered. Success in business comes down to speed and execution, not necessarily originality.” – Quartz

How a court case and circumstances conspired to help MakeMyTrip and Ibibo find each other: “Then, as luck would have it, the service tax case in early January brought Kalra, his team and Ibibo’s co-founder Kashyap together. The two were fighting for the same cause, and against the Director General of Central Excise Intelligence that had forced the online travel firms to pay service tax that it claimed they owed, on risk of arrest. (Indeed, one MakeMyTrip executive was arrested).” - Mint

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Clifford Chance advised book runners Nomura Financial Advisory & Securities (India), Axis Capital, JP Morgan India and Edelweiss Financial Services on the Rs 1,350 crore initial public offer (IPO) of Indian pharma global giant Alkem Laboratories. Alkem was advised by Khaitan & Co.

CAM Mumbai capital markets partner Gaurav Gupte and Clifford Chance Singapore partner Rahul Guptan acted for the four global coordinators and lead managers.

Khaitan Mumbai partner Abhimany Bhattacharya, executive director Sudhir Bassi, principal associate Soumya Mohapatra and associates Aanchal Arora, Aayush Mohata, Abir Sarkar and Srikant Mantravedi acted for Alkem.

The IPO of 12,853,442 Rs 2 equity shares for cash at a price of INR 1,050 per Equity Share, through an offer for sale by the selling shareholders, aggregating to Rs 13,46.62 crore, according to CAM’s press release.

The generic drugs maker had filed its prospectus for the IPO with SEBI in August, reported Business Standard.

The original version of this story overstated the size of the IPO. We regret the error.

AZB & Partners and Clifford Chance Hong Kong advised global investment banking major Goldman Sachs on its $66m (Rs 441 Crore) acquisition of minority stake in Indian hotel investor Samhi Hotels which was advised by Economic Laws Practice (ELP) and Jones Day. Khaitan & Co and Trilegal advised existing investors GTI Capital and IFC

AZB Mumbai partner Nilanjana Singh and senior associate Rinki Ganguly and associate Vijay Manjrekar, and Clifford Chance Hong Kong partner Neeraj Budhwani, senior associates John Koshy and Cheris Wong advised Goldman Sachs.

ELP Mumbai partners Sujjain Talwar and Darshan Upadhyay, associate partner Aakanksha Joshi and associate managers Amruta Kelkar and Kanisha Vora, and Jones Day Singapore partners Dennis Barskyand Karthik Kumar and associate Caitlyn McCarthy advised Samhi.

Khaitan Delhi partners Bharat Anand and Joyjyoti Mishra, principal associate Arjun Rajagopal and associate Nidhi Kilawala advised GTI Capital.

Trilegal Delhi partner Ravindra Bandhakavi, counsel Vaibhav Kothari and senior associate Parnika Malhotra acted for IFC

Former Clifford Chance foreign legal consultant Pranav Mago is now heading the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) South Asia. Mago took over the role on 17 August from Scheherazade Dubash.

Linklaters, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Baker & McKenzie are the highest profile foreign law firms operating in India, according to the latest analysis of foreign law firms’ India businesses.