Mining conglomerate Vedanta’s Sterlite Industries unit merged with subsidiary Sesa Goa for up to $14bn in February 2012 – the largest deal in Asia this quarter – brought Amarchand and Luthra their topping deal value not just in India but also across Asia as a whole.
This deal alone increased India’s M&A value tenfold from the previous quarter, according to mergermarket.
Luthra was catapulted into second place with its role in the Sterlite deal, while Amarchand also advised on $1.4bn deals aside from Sterlite to grab a total market share of $11.6bn in aggregate deal values from 10 deal.
Both firms this quarter bettered AZB’s $9.7bn from 11 deals over the same period in the first quarter of 2011.
AZB’s $2.2bn from eight deals this quarter made it the only other Indian law firm in the table to have crossed the billion dollar mark in the first quarter.
A raft of firms also benefited from the $395 sale by Strides Arcolab of its Australian subsidiary, which DSK Legal, Herbert Smith advised on with Australian firm Freehills and Middletons.
Desai & Diwanji led the deal volume charts with 13 smaller deals aggregating to $287m, only two fewer than its Q1 2011 record but only 32 per cent in terms of deal value compared to 2011’s first quarter.
Khaitan & Co slumped a position, with six fewer deals than in last year’s Q1. In 2012 so far its six deals aggregated $558m which was 83 per cent less than its haul the previous year.
While this year’s aggregate Indian deal value of $26.06bn was a 142 per cent increase from Q1 last year, 12 fewer deals were completed compared to a total of 53 in the same period in 2011.
Legal Advisers to Indian M&A, 1 January – 31 March 1012: By Value
| Rank Q1 2011 | Rank Q1 2012 | Firm name | Q1 2012 Value (US$m) | Q1 2012 Deal Count | Q1 2011 Value (US$m) | %Val. Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 1 | Amarchand Mangaldas | 11,646 | 10 | 2,723 | 327% |
| - | 2 | Luthra & Luthra | 10,289 | 1 | - | - |
| 1 | 3 | AZB & Partners | 2,196 | 8 | 10,726 | -80% |
| 43 | 4 | Jones Day | 1,323 | 3 | 19 | 6863% |
| - | 5 | Latham & Watkins | 921 | 1 | - | - |
| 13 | 6 | S&R Associates | 616 | 1 | 1,219 | -50% |
| 6 | 7 | Khaitan & Co | 558 | 6 | 3,352 | -83% |
| 23 | 8 | 413 | 2 | 680 | -39% | |
| 28 | 9= | DSK Legal | 395 | 2 | 240 | 65% |
| - | 9= | Herbert Smith | 395 | 2 | - | - |
| - | 11= | Freehills | 395 | 1 | - | - |
| - | 11= | Middletons | 395 | 1 | - | - |
| - | 13 | Stibbe | 362 | 1 | - | - |
| 10 | 14 | Desai & Diwanji | 287 | 13 | 1,924 | -85% |
| 44 | 15 | Rajani Associates | 175 | 1 | 18 | 872% |
Source mergermarket
Comments
Posting the league table ranking by value is simply the incomplete truth and becoming a part of the big law firm publicity crew. Every M&A lawyer knows that value is almost immaterial from a lawyer's perspective (except in few situations). Hope you will be impartial and would understand the significance of deal counts in a league tables.
Cheers !!