The deal is the largest ever overnight block trade out of India, according to moneycontrol, with Petronas having wanted to divest all of its 14.9 per cent Cairn India shareholding in the open market and Vedanta stepping up as a buyer.

Amarchand Bangalore partners Nivedita Rao, Arjun Lall and Anand Jayachandran with Mumbai managing partner Cyril Shroff led for the brokers Merrill Lynch alongside Clifford Chance Singapore partner Rahul Guptan.

Luthra & Luthra partners Madhurima Mukherjee in Delhi and partner Deepak THM and associate Rohan Shah in Mumbai led for the seller group Petronas, also known as Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Behad, which is understood to have been a long-standing client of the firm.

Vedanta entity Sesa Goa, which has an ongoing open offer for Cairn Shares and bought Petronas’ shares on the open market in the block sale, was advised by AZB & Partners Mumbai-based partners Shuva Mandal and Essaji Vahanvati according to an AZB press release.

AZB, S&R Associates, Shepherd and Wedderburn and Latham & Watkins had arranged the August 2010 sale for $9.6bn of Cairn India to Vedanta.

Vedanta has since failed to gain full control of the company and recent approval delays forced it to delay its open offer to minority shareholders after the Indian government requested time to study the takeover further, reported Bloomberg.

Vedanta through Sesa Goa will continue with its current open offer launched on 11 April to buy further minority shares by 30 April in the open market, which is expected to take its shareholding up to between 51 to 70.4 per cent.

Sesa Goa was acquired by Vedanta in 2009 for Rs 1,750 crore ($368m), which Luthra & Luthra and J Sagar Associates (JSA) had advised on.