Corporate / M&A

Mega deal sees five law firms bring investment home.

Khaitan & Co advised IT and software outsourcing company HCL Technologies on its acquisition of Swedish multinational group Volvo’s external IT business for $138m (Rs 895 crore) in an all cash deal. London based law firm Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP represented Volvo.

Khaitan Delhi partner Joyjyoti Misra, senior associate Shruti Singh and associate Sanchit Agarwal acted for HCL

The two companies have also signed a letter of intent under which the Volvo Group will also outsource its IT infrastructure operations to HCL Technologies for an undisclosed amount for five years. Around 2600 Volvo personnel affected by the transaction would be offered to move to HCL according to report by Firstpost.

The transaction will be closed during the second quarter of 2016 and will provide both cost savings and a capital gain, Volvo said.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Reliance Capital (RCAP) on the Rs 1200 crore ($180m) sale of 14 per cent stake in Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM) to Japan’s largest life insurance company Nippon Life Insurance (NLI). NLI was advised by Khaitan & Co and Anderson Mori & Tomotsune.

JSA Mumbai partners Dina Wadia and Gautam Gandotra, senior associate Gagan Sharma and associate Upamanyu Talukdar acted for RCAP

Khaitan partner Niren Patel, senior associates Aravind Venugopal and Ritwik Kulkarni and associate Vidur Sinha and Anderson partner Ryo Kotoura and associate Masahiko Yasui acted for NLI

According to the press release, the stake sale would lead to change in controlling interest in RCAM according to mutual fund rules of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as NLI already had 35 per cent stake in RCAM This deal will trigger the exit option for various unit holders of various mutual fund schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund.

According to the report by TOI, this is the largest foreign investment in the mutual fund industry in India. Post the stake sale, Reliance MF will be renamed as Reliance Nippon MF

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Union Bank of India on its acquisition of 49 per cent shareholding in its joint ventures, Union KBC Asset Management Company (KBC-AMC) and Union KBC Trustee Company (KBC-TC) from KBC Participation Renta. KBC Participation Renta was advised by BMR Legal.

JSA Mumbai partner Dina Wadia, senior associate Manav Raheja and associate Viraj Bathe acted for Union Bank of India.

BMR Legal partner Souvik Ganguly, managing associate Vishruta Kaul and associate Deep Jain acted for KBC Participations Renta which a group company of Luxembourg based KBC Asset Management NV

The acquisition will be complete subject to regulatory approvals from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBi) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI). After this acquisition, both Union KBC Asset Management and Union KBC Trustee Company will become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Union Bank of India reported Business Standard.

Veritas Legal advised Recipharm AB, a Swedish pharmaceutical company on investing $103m (Rs 671.2 crore) in Nitin Lifesciences, an Indian pharma company which was advised by Khaitan & Co.

Veritas partner Partner Nandish Vyas and Associates Natasha Sethna and Tejasvi Saxena acted for Recipharm.

Khaitan Mumbai partner Kalpana Unadkat, senior associate Shweta Dwivedi and associate Bidya Mohanty acted for Nitin Lifesciences.

Recipharm, will buy 74 per cent in Nitin Lifesciences, reported Livemint

Themis Partners advised Sequioa on its $34m (Rs 220.39 crore) co-infusion in ethnic handicrafts website Craftsvilla. The other investors in this round were Lightspeed Venture Partners advised by Luthra & Luthra, Global Founders Capital advised by Tamara Thompson , Nexus and Apolleto which was advised by US based firms Tamara Thompson and DST Global services.

Themis principal associate Ashwani Verma, senior associate Dheeraj Khanna and associates Rayan Azmi and Abhishek Dwivedi acted for Sequoia.

Luthra partners Deepak Joyce and Shinoj Koshy with managing associate Neha Sinha and associate Akansha Dalal advised Lightspeed.

Earlier this year Craftsvilla had rasied $1.5m from Lightspeed and Nexus, as reported by Medianama.

Khaitan & Co and _Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom_ acted for clinical trial service provider Bioclinica in its aqcuisition of global pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs and IT services provider Synowledge. Synowledge was advised by Goodwin Procter and Nishith Desai Associates (NDA).

Khaitan partner Rajat Mukherjee, executive director Daksha Baxi, associate partner Kabir Bogra, principal associates Monika Srivastava, Ritu Shaktawat and Sameer Sah, associates Nidhi Killawala, Sanchit Agarwal and Shreya Shree and Skadden Arps partner Robert Pincus, counsel Faiz Ahmad and associate Vincent J Cannizzaro acted for Bioclinica.

NDA partners Mansi Seth and Nishchal Joshipura and Goodwin partner Stuart Rosenthal and associate Oreste Cipolla acted for Synowledge.

Synowledge employs around 500 persons in North America, Europe, India and Japan. The founder of Synowledge, Sankesh Abbhi would serve as senior vice president and head of global safety and regulatory solutions at the merged entity reported Outsourcing Pharma.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised renewable energy company BLP Energy on its $33.8m (Rs 220 crore) acquisition by Italy’s Enel Green Power which was advised by Khaitan & Co and Ashurst Singapore and Italy.

JSA partner Sidharrth Shankar and associates Prakriti Jaiswal and CV Srikant acted for BLP

Khaitan Mumbai partner Joy Jacob and Ashurst Singapore partner Keith McGuire acted for Enel.

This year US-based SunEdison and First Solar, Russia’s OAO Rosneft, China’s Trina Solar, Japan’s SoftBank and Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology have either invested or evaluated investing in the Indian renewables sector, reported Mint.

Hengeler Mueller advised Indian pharma company Lupin on buying the assets of German pharma company Temmler Pharma which was advised by German firm CMS Hasche Sigle.

Hengeler partner Daniela Favoccia, counsel Patrick H Wilkening, partners Dirk Uwer and Christian Hoefs, counsel Andrea Schlaffge and associates Daniel A Spitze, Abhijit Narayan, Anne Broll, Lars Mesenbrink, Susanne Koch and Alla Hajut acted for Lupin.

This is Lupin’s fourth overseas acquisition in 2015 reported Mint. It has acquired pharmaceutical companies in Russia, Brazil and Mexico earlier in 2015, strengthening its portfolio, the report said.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has acted for the owners and existing investors of Paytm, including One97 Communications, which saw a $575m investment from Chinese e-commerce and internet behemoth Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial, which drafted in Trilegal in Mumbai.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Fidelity Growth Partners on investing $9m (Rs 60 crore) in Shadowfax Technologies which was advised by Avigna Law.

JSA Delhi partner Manvinder Singh, senior associate Zain Pandit and associates Sonali Kapoor, Ritika Arora and Akhil Bhardwaj acted for Fidelity.

Bangalore-based Avigna Law partner Chitra Raghavan acted for Shadowfax.

Fidelity made $9m the infusion through its investment arm Eight Roads, into shadowfax which is a hyperlocal delivery services start-up for restaurants and retailers, reported VC Cirlce.

AZB & Partners advised India’s largest doctor discovery platform Practo Technologies on its over $10m buy of smaller rival Qikwell Technologies India which was advised by Nishith Desai Associates (NDA).

AZB Mumbai partners Ashwin Ramanathan and Nilanjhana Singh and senior associate Parthasarathi Jha acted for Practo.

NDA Bangalore partner Vaibhav Parikh and associates Sangeeta Rana and Shreyas Bhushan acted for Qikwell.

Practo has bought four businesses in the last five months, including Qikwell, reported Mint according to which the other acquisitions were Insta Health, product outsourcing firm Genii and FitHo.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) acted for First Carlyle Ventures Mauritius, whose affiliate is advised by The Carlyle Group, and the promoters and management shareholders of telecoms software company Elitecore Technologies Limited, in their sale of 100 per cent of Elitecore for Rs 180 crores to optical fibre maker Sterlite Technologies, which was advised by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas partner Santosh Janakiram and partner designate Himanshu Dodeja.

JSA partner Vikram Raghani and senior associates Anand Lakra and Avinash Jethwani led the team for Carlyle.

JSA had also advised First Carlyle Ventures Mauritius during its initial investment in Elitecore. The deal will expand Sterlite’s broadband offering, reported PTI.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) advised the Dodsal group on the sale of its Pizza Hut franchise rights to another Pizza Hut franchise owner in India Sapphire Foods India which was advised by Luthra & Luthra.

SAM managing partner Pallavi Shroff assisted by senior counsel Soli Cooper, partner Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, principal associate Divi Dutta and associate Sumi Saikia acted for the Dodsal group which owned the rights to operate South West India’s 81 Pizza Hut outlets in eight states.

Luthra Mumbai partner Bikash Jhawar and associates Nipun Vaid and Rohan Shah acted for Sapphire which, after this deal, became one of the largest owners of the Pizza Hut franchise in India.

Sapphire acquired Dodsal Hospitality from Dodsal Lifestyle Mauritius and its other affiliates, according to SAM’s press release.