Bristol-headquartered TLT has bagged the advice for a syndicate of Indian banks on a $110m dollar loan to Indus Gas alongside Amarchand Mangaldas, with the regional UK firm benefiting from its niche banking pitch.

Amarchand Delhi partner Amit Kumar led the team for London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) listed oil and gas exploration and development company Indus Gas, which raised $110m to finance an oil field development.

Guernsey-based Carey Olsen partner Graham Hall advised the company offshore.

The lending banks were Bank of Baroda, with other syndicate members including Bank of India, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank Hong Kong and Punjab National Bank London.

TLT London office banking and India partner Richard McBride led the legal team for the banks, having secured the mandate after several years of working the niche area of mid-market lending advice for Indian banks in London.

He said that this had been the largest Indian lending deal he had won for the firm to date, explaining that it followed smaller June and December 2009 instructions by Punjab National Bank on another oil and gas deal.

Before joining TLT in 2006 and starting to build up an India-related banking practice, McBride was deputy general counsel at Barclays Bank, before which he was an assistant at Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy.

He told Legally India that he had worked hard on building an India practice at TLT by visiting the country several times per year, building relationships with Indian banks' London branches and pitching magic circle quality advice at lower rates on mid-market financings.

TLT was the UK's 70th-largest firm with a turnover of £39m last year, according to The Lawyer magazine, with offices in Bristol, London and Piraeus.