Corporate
AZB advises Prem Watsa-owned Fairfax on $186m buy of Catholic Syrian Bank
Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa-owned Fairfax India Holdings has entered into an agreement to acquire a 51% stake in Kerala-based Catholic Syrian Bank for an estimated Rs 1,200 crores ($186m) through a full equity infusion, as reported by The Economic Times and Mint. The deal, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first half of 2018, paving way for the first acquisition of an Indian bank by a foreign non-banking financial entity.
Ex-IDFC, Luthra partner Rajesh Chavda joins Essar Oil UK refinery in-house
Rajesh Chavda, who had been working at IDFC Alternatives as a director in India until January of this year, has joined Essar Oil (UK) Limited as a senior legal adviser.
As expected, CBI mentions NiMo LOUs raided from CAM in court, remain potentially critical to prosecution (and privileged)
In a Mumbai special court application to keep Nirav Modi company authorised signatories Kharat and Hemant Bhatt under extended judicial custody, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has relied on letters of undertaking (LOU), some of which it had obtained from the “Advocate’s firm of Nirav Modi Group” - a clear nod to Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) - reported the Economic Times.
Tata Sons ex-GC Bharat Vasani to join Cyril Amarchand as corporate partner
Bharat Vasani, the former general counsel of Tata Sons, has joined Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, according to a press release from the firm.
HSA promotes 2 to equity, 2 to partner, 2 to associate partner
HSA Advocates has promoted partners Harvinder Singh in Delhi and Nand Kishore in Mumbai to equity partner level.
Bharucha Delhi corporate partner Arjun Anand joins Singhania & P
Bharucha & Partners Delhi partner Arjun Anand has joined Singhania & Partners on 12 March as a partner, according to a Singhania press release.
In rare move, Link Legal hires senior DU law prof Solil Paul to start in-house ‘academy’, outreach to academic world, joint legal ed initiatives
In a rare move from academia to the law firm world, Link Legal India Law Services has engaged former Delhi University’s Campus Law Centre faculty Solil Paul as chair - academics at the firm.
Link Legal associate partner Rajdeep Choudhary joins HSA as partner
Former Link Legal India Law Services (LLILS) associate partner Rajdeep Choudhary has joined HSA Advocates as partner to strengthen its dispute resolution and management, projects and energy and infrastructure practices.
Ministry wastes no time post Balaji-era to restart liberalisation talks • Plus the definitive analysis of a timepass judgment
“I received a call from the government today,“ Kaviraj Singh, secretary general of the Indian National Bar Association (INBA), told us yesterday. Staunchly pro-liberalisation INBA and Singh have been one of the stakeholders involved in discussions with the Indian government.
Foreign firms: As expected, SC gives inch to foreign lawyers: Allows arbitration, fly-in-fly-out • Affirms LPOs are legal • Now, over to NaMo [UPDATE: Read 52-page judgment]
As first reported by Live Law, the Supreme Court has upheld the right of foreign lawyers to fly in on a temporary basis to India to advise clients, as well as finding that foreign lawyers should be allowed to conduct international arbitrations in India.
SC foreign law firm judgment expected tomorrow (13 March)
The long-long-running Supreme Court case hearing the Bar Council of India (BCI) appeal against the Madras high court’s AK Balaji judgment, which allowed foreign law firms to operate in India on a fly-in-fly-out basis, is listed for tomorrow as cause list number 1501.
First DSK IPO (out of 5) in a while, acts with CAM on $119m issue of state-run defence firm Bharat Dynamics
NLS ‘12-13-spawned Jaipur boutique Capstone expands to Ahmedabad to tap ’vibrant start-up culture’, coal imports, ships and lack of young lawyers
Six-year old Jaipur-based firm Capstone Legal, that was started up by NLSIU Bangalore 2012 alumnus Ashish K Singh fresh out of law school with his brother Vagish K Singh, who was in his fourth year at NLSIU at the time, has opened its second office, expanding to Ahmedabad.
Verist, Dua assist Mahindra logistics on $10m merger with rent-a-truck startup Porter
Cyril Amarchand scoops ex-SEBI chief UK Sinha to spearhead governance practice: ’Very profitable’, ‘Wachtell-like', ‘think tank', new 'centrepiece' of firm [UPDATE-1]
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas CAM has hired UK Sinha, former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chief of 6 years, as a senior advisor to lead its newly-established Corporate Governance Center (CGC).
Legasis, ALMT on hyper logistic platform Grab.in $1.5m raise from SIDBI
Emerging food delivery startup, Grab.in, has raised a funding of Rs 9 crores ($1.5m) from SIDBI Venture Capital, the wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI, as reported by YourStory and MoneyControl. With the current funding, SIDBI will be joining the list of Grab’s investors that include Aramex Ventures, Zomato, and Sixth Sense Ventures. The Mumbai-based startup had earlier raised $1 million from Oliphans Capital and independent investor Haresh Chawla in April 2015, while Zomato had invested an undisclosed amount in the startup five months later.
Do you check your privilege? We have, and found potentially huge future problems with CBI raiding Nirav Modi docs from CAM
As expected, after we had broken exclusively last week that Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) had been visited by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about Nirav Modi, the mainstream media, keen on anything NiMo-related at the moment, didn’t take long to jump on the story.
AZB, JD, Rajah Tann on Prem Watsa-backed biz service provider Quess Corp $14m buy of Monster.com India, SE Asia, Middle East
Too many foxes: Fox Mandal Cal distances self from Som & Delhi with newspaper ad due to conflict
A keen-eyed reader has brought to our notice that Fox & Mandal, Kolkata, has published an advertisement in the Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper, stating that the venerable firm, “has no other branch in any part of the country”, especially not Fox Mandal:
Tatva promotes Chennai litigation head Venkat Raman to partner
Tatva Legal has promoted R Venkat Raman, who heads the 5-lawyer litigation practice in Chennai, to its partnership in January, according to a press release from the firm.