Universal Legal has advised two microfinance institutions in Chennai and Hyderabad on private equity capital raisings with AZB & Partners and Trilegal acting for the investor companies.  

In the first transaction AZB advised the lead investor Matrix Partners that together with Hivos Tridos and Lok Capital invested Rs 117 crores ($26.5m) in Hyderabad-based microfinance company Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Limited.

AZB Mumbai partner Abhijit Joshi and associates Pooja Garg, Nandish Vyas and Richa Roy formed the team for Matrix while Universal Legal partners Aarthi Sivanandh and Kavitha Vijay acted for BSFL.

The second transaction involved Trilegal and best friend Allen & Overy advising CLSA Capital Partners in the acquisition of a minority stake in Chennai-based Equitas Microfinance for Rs 106.6 crores through its Aria Investment fund III.     

The same team of Universal Legal partners Sivanandh and Vijay with senior associate Gaurav Chatterjee advised the sellers and Trilegal's Sridhar Gorthi and Rohan are understood to have advised CLSA.

India's largest MFI SKS Microfinance was the first to hit the capital markets through an initial public offering (IPO) hoping to raise Rs 1,125 crore on 25 March.

On that IPO the Mumbai and Hyderabad offices of Amarchand Mangaldas were the company counsel while S&R Associates led for domestic underwriters and US based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.