Amarchand Mangaldas and Dorsey & Whitney have won the government's mandate on the $1.8bn follow-on public offer (FPO) by Power Grid Corporation of India.

Amarchand Delhi capital markets parter Prashant Gupta and Mumbai capital markets partner Yash Ashar, assisted by principal associate Aarti Joshi led the team that won the competitive tender.

Dorsey & Whitney Sydney-based partner John Chrisman and London and Sydney-based special counsel Jamie Benson were part of the Amarchand bid consortium.

"I think there is probably going to be one PSU [public sector undertaking] deal coming to market every month for the next four to five," commented one disinvestment partner. "The problem is that some of them (Coal India, Power Grid, Hindustan Copper) are very large which sucks the liquidity out of the Indian market."

Amarchand and Dorsey were shortlisted against FoxMandal Little and Hogan Lovells, as well as Luthra & Luthra together with DLA Piper.

As part of the request for proposals for Power Grid it was a requirement that the foreign firm had completed on Indian public offering of Rs 1,000 crore in the past three years.

It is understood that Luthra & Luthra and DLA Piper's joint bid was rejected because although the two firms had together completed Engineers India initial public offering (IPO), which raised just under Rs 1,000 crore, the disinvestment ministry disqualified the firms.

Luthra & Luthra had also filed the prospectus in the Coal India IPO, which could raise up to Rs 17,700 crore but has not yet been issued and was therefore not counted by the disinvestment ministry for the purpose of the tender.

The disinvestment ministry confirmed Amarchand and Dorsey's appointment but declined to comment further.

Goldman Sachs, SBI Caps, JP Morgan and ICICI Securities are the banks that are managing the issue.

Last week FoxMandal and Gide Loyrette Nouel won the mandate to advise the government on its Manganese Ore IPO.

This is a longer version of an article that first appeared on Bloomberg News.

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