Capital Markets

Five law firms including Amarchand & Mangaldas, Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates, Crawford Bayley & Co and Fox Mandal have been selected to pitch for the SAIL (Steel Authority of India) first phase 10 per cent share disinvestment, expecting to enrich the Exchequer by Rs 8,000 crores, reported the Economic Times.

Amarchand Mangaldas and Dorsey & Whitney have won the government's mandate on the $1.8bn follow-on public offer (FPO) by Power Grid Corporation of India.

FoxMandal Little and French international firm Gide Loyrette Nouel won the government's mandate to take Manganese Ore (India) Ltd (MOIL) to its initial public offering (IPO) by putting in the lowest bid-price yet compared to recent disinvestments.

Amarchand Mangaldas' Delhi office and Dorsey & Whitney have won the bid on the Hindustan Copper divestment while Khaitan & Co bagged the underwriter's mandate.

Amarchand also won the role for the underwriters on the mammoth Coal India stake sale with Ashurst as international counsel while Luthra had won the tender to advise the company.

Luthra & Luthra jointly topped Legally India's quarterly IPO league tables for the first time alongside Amarchand Mangaldas over the first quarter of the 2010-11 financial year with five mandates each while AZB & Partners slotted into third place.

Start-up firm Axon Partners LLP has advised Shiv-Vani Oil & Gas Exploration Services on its $75m convertible bond issue with Norton Rose's Singapore office getting into the capital markets game by advising the deal's London underwriters Jefferies International.

Amarchand Mangaldas acted on more than half of the total number of Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) in Legally India's QIP League Table of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co were the second-busiest followed by J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates amongst domestic firms.

International firm Jones Day bagged the maximum QIPs out of foreign law firms acting for the book running lead managers while Linklaters, Dorsey & Whitney and Clifford Chance also won mandates on a significant numbers of fundraisings.

Amarchand Mangaldas was the busiest IPO law firm in Legally India's 2009-10 financial year (FY) league table by far but the newer practices Luthra & Luthra, S&R Associates, AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co have managed to keep pace in bank advisory work bagging nearly as many instructions.

Luthra & Luthra and DLA Piper have won two out of two government disinvestment tenders this week for consultancy Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and the world's largest coal producer Coal India Ltd, defeating firms such as Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners-Clifford Chance, Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates in a competitive tender.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Talwar Thakore & Associates and its best friend Linklaters are advising India's second largest power sector company Essar Energy in its plans to raise $2.5bn (Rs 11,000 crores) in a maiden listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Amarchand Mangaldas picked up almost one third of 33 initial public offering (IPO) mandates in the first quarter of 2010, while Crawford Bayley, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra and Khaitan & Co together bagged another 40 per cent of instructions.