Law firms

AZB & Partners Delhi partner Gautam Saha with senior associate Heena Singh has advised Hector Beverages, which has found big success in selling traditional Indian soft drinks in trendy and hygienic packaging and [ has raised Rs 107 crore ($17m) from Belgium’s Sofina and China’s Hillhouse Capital].

Goodwin Proctor Hong Kong partner Yash Rana advised Hillhouse.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas had advised the Grofers Group - a start-up that delivers groceries and other sundry items to homes from nearby shops - on its $36m investment by Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and Apoletto Asia, which closed this week.

Tiger Global was advised by ARA Law managing partner Rajesh Begur and Gunderson Dettmer New-York based senior partner Steven L Baglio.

Sequoia in-house lawyers Tanmay Amar and Sandeep Kapoor briefed Bangalore-based Themis Associates, led by partner Chetan Nagendra, principal associate Ashwani Verma and senior associate Dheeraj Khanna.

Shardul Amarchand partners Prashant Gupta and Puja Sondhi, with principal associate designate Aayush Kapoor, and senior associates Sumeet Singh and Sushrut Biswal acted for the fast-growing e-commerce start-up.

Rajani Singhania & Partners advised surgical sutures maker Stericat Gut Strings on the acquisition of a majority stake in it by French firm Groupe Peters Surgical which was advised by Tatva Legal.

Rajani managing partner Prem Rajani, partner Poorvi Sanjanwala and associates Nishtha Mehta and Kashmira Bakliwal acted for Stericat.

Tatva Delhi partner Simran Singh and lawyer Sumit Khosla acted for Groupe Peters.

The finance ministry rejected the request for approval for the deal on the ground that the acquisition partly involved share swap whereas it had only granted Stericat approval to bring in Rs 43.52 crore of FDI in cash through the sale of 77.5 per cent of its shares to Groupe, reported the PTI.

BMR & Associates Delhi indirect tax head partner Puneet Bansal left the firm on 15 June with BMR associate director Kulraj Ashpnani, to start up his independent indirect tax boutique Nitya Tax Associates, said Ashpnani.

Bansal, who started his legal career at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) in May 2003, as a chartered accountant in the firm’s disputes practice, went on to pursue his LLB from 2004 to 2007 at Delhi University. He left LKS in 2012 to join BMR & Associates as a partner.

Ashpnani who joined BMR from ELP in October 2013 is an associate partner at Nitya.

Nitya is based in Delhi and will service clients on indirect tax matters and related disputes.

Litigator Udayarkar Rangarajan has joined Khaitan & Co as an associate partner based in Bangalore, from where he will focus on building the practice in Chennai.

Delhi Suri & Co partner Shashank Garg has rejoined Advani & Co, which he had left around 18 months ago to explore growth opportunities outside Advani, where he was a partner.

Former Rodyk & Davidson Singapore partner Ganesh Chandru has joined Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) in Delhi as an executive partner to head the firm’s international arbitration practice.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised travel met search website Ixigo’’s owner Le Travenues Technology and its promoters Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar on its fundraising from mobile phone maker Micromax Informatics, which was advised by Indus Law.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) Mumbai-based corporate partner Anshuman Jaiswal advised Ixigo’’s existing investors SAIF Partners and MakeMyTrip.

JSA Bangalore partner Vivek K Chandy and senior associate Siddharth K Vedula acted for Ixigo.

Indus Delhi partner Gaurav Dani, senior associate Divya Varghese and associate Chitvan Bakshi acted for Micromax.

Micromax plans to invest between $500,000 and $20m in over 20 start-ups this year with the help of its newly installed mergers and acquisitions (M&As) team, reported Mint.

Dua Associates managing partner Ranji Dua has confirmed that senior disputes partner Shiraz Patodia and her team would remain at the firm, less than a month after she had given notice to join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) in Delhi, as first reported by Legally India on 1 July.

Suzlon Energy senior legal counsel Naved Askari, who was heading the company’s corporate and operations legal team, is to join AZB & Partners as a Mumbai-based counsel, reported Bar & Bench.

The 1998 GLC Mumbia graduate has previously worked at Mulla & Mulla, Wadia Ghandy, and Wockhardt, before joining Suzlon in 2009.

In a week that’s seen a raft of companies hitting the markets, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Bangalore partner Arjun Lall has scooped the mandate advising Cafe Coffee Day on its Rs 1,150 crore initial public offering (IPO), with AZB & Partners and Baker & McKenzie acting for the banks.

AZB Delhi partner Madhurima Mukherjee with senior associate Agnik Bhattacharyya and associate Namita Das acted for the global book running lead managers Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup Global Markets and Morgan Stanley.

BakerMacs’ India head Ashok Lalwani handled the international elements of the deal.

Pradeep Kumar Bagga, who has been with the State Bank of India for more than 30 years, has joined Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Delhi as a senior consultant, according to a press release from the firm to “provide advice and guidance on general policy and regulations” and assist in “practice area development initiatives”, according to a press release from the firm.