AZB & Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas have advised on a majority of M&A mandates out of 26India-related transactions in November, according to data aggregated by mergermarket.

AZB acted on a total of six M&A transactions out of which it rendered legal advice to four bidders and two seller groups whereas Amarchand Mangaldas was instrumental on three acquisitions.

AZB was appointed as corporate legal counsel by AFL Private Limited which completely sold its logistics and distribution business to Fedex Express, which was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas for an undisclosed amount.

AZB also led on the seller side was the acquisition of Enam Securities’s investment banking business by Axis Bank for $447m, which was advised by Amarchand.

On the buyer-side transaction, AZB acted for longstanding clients Dabur India’s $100m worth acquisition of US hair product company Namasté Laboratories, US firms Foley Lardner and Baker & Daniels were hired by the opposite side.

Other acquisitions on which AZB advised according to mergermarket data were:

• Cambrex Corporation, the listed US based pharmaceutical company has acquired a 51% stake in the Zenara Pharma Ltd, the India based manufacturer of pharmaceuticals for a consideration of USD 20m.
• QInvest LLC, the Qatar based investment bank, has acquired a 28% stake in Asian Business Exhibition & Conferences Limited, the India based event management firm, for an approximate consideration of INR 750m (USD 16.95m)
• MedFort Hospitals Pvt Ltd (Significant Minority Stake) TVS Capital Funds Ltd, the India based private equity firm, and ePlanet Ventures, the US based private equity firm, have acquired a minority stake in Medfort Hospitals, the India based healthcare company, for a consideration of INR 600m (USD 13.14m).

Other than its role on the acquisition of Enam’s investment banking business by Axis Bank and Fedex Express’s buy-out of AFL, Amarchand also advised JSW Energy’s $422m acquisition of Canadian power company CIC Energy with a raft of international law firms.

The reported deal value on six transactions exceeded $100 m and the highest two of those were White & Case-advised GMR Group’s $1.23bn sale of its US-based subsidiary InterGen NV to Chinese company China Huaneng Group, which was advised by Dutch international law firm Houthoff Buruma.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s acquisition of 70 per cent stake in a South Korean carmaker Ssangyong Motor Company for $749m. Mahindra was advised by local firm Bae Kim & Lee acting opposite Shin & Kim.

Hemant Sahai Associates and US firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson advised sell-out of Indian life science business of RFCL Limited to US-based chemicals and materials manufacturers Avantor Performance Materials Inc for $101m, according to mergermarket.

The $92m acquisition of SkyGourmet Catering by Gategroup involved Tatva Legal and Phoenix Legal, and Travers Smith and Proskauer Rose outside of India.