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Courtesy of Amarchand split, Khaitan leads M&A rankings for first time in three years

Khaitan & Co overtook erstwhile firm Amarchand Mangaldas in data provider mergermarket’s half-yearly (H1) M&A charts by value, with the first quarter of Amarchand functioning as the split firms of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM).

AZB & Partners maintained its deal volume lead which it has claimed for two consecutive years.

Amarchand, which led mergermarket’s league-rankings for three consecutive years, and then again in Q1 2015 – the last quarter when it existed as a single firm – slipped in total deal value from $5.24bn to $4.8bn this quarter, even though according to Mergermarket, the firm’s deal count increased from 11 M&As in Q1 2015 to 15 M&As by half-year.

SAM and CAM was created on 11 May, which is understood to have been 19 days before the deadline to submit deals to Mergermarket and only SAM found a place in these half-year rankings20th spot.

Khaitan, which wasn’t even in the top 10 firms by value in H1 2013 and ranked eighth in H1 2014, despite consistently making the top five in the H1 league tables by volume each year, acted on the $2.16bn Vedanta-Cairn merger – one of three Indian M&As that crossed the billion dollar mark this year.

Amarchand’s Mumbai office, which is now CAM, advised on the third-largest Indian M&A so far this year – the $1.16bn Aditya Birla Nuvo sale to Pantaloons – before the firm split into Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM).

No domestic legal advisers were listed in India’s biggest M&A – the $2.5bn Johnson Controls acquisition of Indian Hitachi subsidiaries.

Smaller pies

The top 13 Indian law firms by value aggregated $20.8bn in deal value – a major slip from H1 2014’s $30.4bn and H1 2013’s $30bn total deal value.

Khaitan did 22 deals for a total deal value of $4.8bn.

Amarchand’s 15 deals totalled only $4bn in value. In the first half of 2014, Crawford Bayley alone (which was ranked fourth) had advised on two deals worth $4.46bn.

AZB did twice as many deals this year as it did in H1 2014 but for only a marginal increase in total value ($3.6bn, 34 in 2015; $2.7bn, 17 in 2014).

Luthra & Luthra’s 11 deals totalled $1.04bn, as compared to eight M&As in H1 2014 aggregating $4.7bn.

Volume-wise

There were marginally more deals to go around for the top 18 firms by deal count than in H1 2014 (167 in 2015; 159 in 2014).

League-leader AZB’s biggest M&A so far this year was a $400m stake sale by ANI Technologies.

Khaitan & Co did the second-largest number of deals, followed by Amarchand, Desai & Diwanji, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra, BMR Legal and Trilegal – the only firms with deal counts in double-digits.

BMR Legal was a new entrant in the volume table while Tatva Legal, which found a place in the Q1 2015 table, slipped off.

Foreign firms

Davis Polk and Wardwell was the foreign law firm that advised on the biggest Indian M&As, out of 16 foreign firms which found a place in the rankings. Davis Polk advised on two deals aggregating to $2.7bn.

Volume

H1 2015Company NameH1 2015 Value (US$m)H1 2015 Deal countH1 2014 Deal countDeal count Change
1 AZB & Partners 3,610 34 22 12
2 Khaitan & Co 4,809 22 15 7
3 Amarchand & Mangaldas 4,034 15 25 -10
4 Desai & Diwanji 571 14 19 -5
5 J Sagar Associates 1,028 12 18 -6
6 Luthra & Luthra Law Offices 1,042 11 9 2
7 BMR Legal 1,024 8 4 4
8 Trilegal 759 8 11 -3
9 Nishith Desai Associates 185 8 2 6
10 S&R Associates 771 6 4 2
11 Krishnamurthy & Co 386 6 4 2
12 P. H. Bathiya & Associates 767 5 9 -4
13 Tatva Legal 218 5 3 2
14 Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas 357 4 - -
15 Majmudar & Partners 26 3 2 1
16 Vaish Associates 842 2 3 -1
17 Crawford Bayley & Co 349 2 1 1
18 DSK Legal 215 2 8 -6

Value

H1 2015Company NameH1 2015 Value (US$m)H1 2015 Deal countH1 2014 Value (US$m)% Val. Change
1 Khaitan & Co 4,809 22 1,416 239.6%
2 Amarchand & Mangaldas 4,034 15 8,520 -52.7%
3 AZB & Partners 3,610 34 2,545 41.8%
4 Luthra & Luthra Law Offices 1,042 11 4,736 -78.0%
5 J Sagar Associates 1,028 12 1,262 -18.5%
6 BMR Legal 1,024 8 96 966.7%
7 Vaish Associates 842 2 782 7.7%
8 S&R Associates 771 6 4,838 -84.1%
9 P. H. Bathiya & Associates 767 5 3,968 -80.7%
10 Trilegal 759 8 1,347 -43.7%
11 Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas 580 1 - -
11 Samvad Partners 580 1 26 2130.8%
12 Desai & Diwanji 571 14 666 -14.3%
13 Krishnamurthy & Co 386 6 169 128.4%

 

Foreign firms by value

  Company Name    
H1 2015 H1 2014   H1 2015Value (US$m) H1 2015 Deal count H1 Value (US$m) % Val. Change
4 2 Davis Polk & Wardwell 2,738 2 6,034 -54.6%
5= - Gomez-Acebo & Pombo Abogados 2,500 1 - -
5= - Lee and Li Attorneys at Law 2,500 1 - -
5= 72 Morrison & Foerster 2,500 1 9 27677.8%
5= 90 Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe 2,500 1 0 -
9 14 Sullivan & Cromwell 2,158 1 2,516 -14.2%
10 9 Weil Gotshal & Manges 1,194 2 3,968 -69.9%
14 50 DLA Piper 878 3 83 957.8%
15 25 Linklaters 878 2 433 102.8%
16 - Covington & Burling 850 2 - -
21 - Cravath, Swaine & Moore 750 1 - -
22 - Allen & Gledhill 664 2 - -
23 71 Kirkland & Ellis 583 3 10 5730.0%
24 - WongPartnership 580 2 - -
25= - Hogan Lovells International 580 1 - -
29 15 Herbert Smith Freehills 391 4 1,608 -75.7%
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