Amarchand Mangaldas’ bounced back three places since the first quarter (Q1) of 2013 to top the table with a total deal value of over $6bn from 18 deals.
AZB’s 21 deals worth $939m earned the firm sixth spot among the Indian law firms scoring the biggest deals, while Harish Salve came in at a joint number 10 slot from the $379m Jet-Etihad deal, which also put Gagrats & Co and Economic Laws Practice (ELP) on the M&A map.
Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) on second place trumped Q1 value table toppers Platinum Partners and DSK Legal, respectively, at third and fourth.
Deal-wise
Amarchand’s biggest deals in H1 2013 were the $2.5bn buy of USA-based Cooper Tire & Rubber by India’s Apollo Tyres, and the $2.475bn sale by Videocon of its stake in a Mozambique gas field.
TTA earned its place after acting for Unilever on the biggest India deal this H1 – Unilever’s $3.5bn buy of 15 per cent stake in Hindustan Unilever – alongside UK magic circle best friend Linklaters. This was one of four deals worth $3.571bn done by TTA this H1.
Platinum Partners and DSK Legal, which were tied at the top of the value table in the first quarter (Q1) propelled by the $1.6bn sale of Strides Arcolab subsidiary sale to Mylan, were the only other Indian law firms which found a place on the value league table of the top Indian and foreign firms.
Count-wise
By volume, Khaitan & Co,Desai & Diwanji, Trilegal, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Tatva Legal and TTA followed AZB and Amarchand, while DSK and Platinum slipped off the table.
Khaitan & Co and Desai & Diwanji (D&D), which had trumped Amarchand in the value table in Q1 were at seventh and ninth place, respectively. 16 M&As done by Khaitan were worth $937m, while the same number done by D&D were worth $434m.
The Markets
There was a strong recovery in deal values this quarter, with announced deals in India surging to $7.7bn from 65 transactions – a 145.6 per cent increase in value over Q1 2013. Inbound M&A value jumped 190.4 per cent from Q1.
The consumer sector had the highest total value ($3.7bn from 11 deals), while the industrials and chemicals sector brought the most number of deals (41 deals worth $1.6bn ). Last year the I&C sector had dominated both deal count and deal value.
But despite the recovery from Q1, H1 2013 M&A totalled $10.9bn from 130 deals - the lowest opening half year since H1 2009, when 98 reported deals had added up to $7.8bn.
Note: The data is compiled by mergermarket on the basis of data supplied by law firms and press reports, but may exclude deals that were not disclosed by firms or where a client has not given permission to share a law firm’s involvement.
Mergermarket standard 2013 first-half M&A rankings, including foreign firms
| ### VALUE ($bn) | ### VOLUME |
|---|---|
| Amarchand Mangaldas | 6.158 |
| Jones Day | 4.009 |
| Talwar Thakore & Associates | 3.571 |
| Davis Polk & Wardwell | 3.549 |
| Linklaters | 3.549 |
| White & Case | 2.868 |
| Simmons & Simmons | 2.475 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | 2.331 |
| Herbert Smith Freehills | 1.721 |
| Platinum Partners | 1.622 |
| DSK Legal | 1.6 |
Mergermarket 2013 first-half M&A league table by value, Indian firms only
| Rank | House | Value ($m) | Deal Count | % Value change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 2012 | H1 2013 | ||||
| 1 | 1 | Amarchand Mangaldas | 6,158 | 18 | -51.7% |
| - | 2 | Talwar Thakore & Associates | 3,571 | 4 | - |
| - | 3 | Platinum Partners | 1,622 | 2 | - |
| 7 | 4 | DSK Legal | 1,600 | 1 | 24.8% |
| 11 | 5 | S&R Associates | 1,271 | 2 | 38.2% |
| 5 | 6 | AZB & Partners | 939 | 21 | -64.3% |
| 8 | 7 | Khaitan & Co | 937 | 16 | -22.9% |
| 23 | 8 | Trilegal | 633 | 12 | 93.0% |
| 12 | 9 | Desai & Diwanji | 434 | 16 | -47.6% |
| 35 | 10= | Economic Laws Practice | 379 | 1 | 178.7% |
| - | 10= | Gagrats | 379 | 1 | - |
| - | 10= | Harish Salve | 379 | 1 | - |
Mergermarket 2013 first-half M&A league table by volume, Indian firms only
| Rank | House | Value ($m) | Deal Count | Count change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 2012 | H1 2013 | ||||
| 4 | 1 | AZB & Partners | 939 | 21 | 5 |
| 2 | 2 | Amarchand Mangaldas | 6,158 | 18 | -1 |
| 3 | 3 | Khaitan & Co | 937 | 16 | -1 |
| 1 | 4 | Desai & Diwanji | 434 | 16 | -11 |
| 8 | 5 | Trilegal | 633 | 12 | 5 |
| 7 | 6 | J Sagar Associates | 269 | 9 | 2 |
| 9 | 7 | Tatva Legal | 57 | 5 | -2 |
| - | 8 | Talwar Thakore & Associates | 3,571 | 4 | 4 |
| - | 9 | MNK Law Offices | 65 | 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 10 | K Law | 0 | 3 | -5 |
Comments
@ Prachi - It seems the second Mergermarket table is by "volume" or "deal count", but the heading says "value".
Also, deal size does not reflect fees earned. Larger transactions do not always translate into larger fees. In this market, a higher volume of medium sized deals will earn more fees for a firm as compared to a few large ones.
If there are Luthra, Crawford, NDA or Dua deals that are missed, please share them here in the comments, though I expect they were missed because:
1. The client never gave permission to publicise a firm's involvement.
2. The law firm doesn't care.
3. There were no deals that met the $5m threshold or the other requirements stipulated mergermarket.
Ultimately, as I've said before, league tables aren't perfect but they're a damn sight better than nothing in terms of bringing some transparency to deal flows.
However, they also get skewed a lot by the BD and PR function of law firms.
Re: Guest. I believe Luthra has not really reported any deals in the last quarter. They must have done something, I'm not sure, but maybe the client hasn't given permission or the deals haven't closed, or it hasn't met the thresholds?
Best wishes,
Kian
However, we should take tables like these with a giant pinch of salt. There seem to be strict criteria for inclusion, firms can be lucky about which deals close in which quarter or half year, etc.
Remains to be seen if AZB and JSA up their ante or let Khaitan consolidate its gains over the past few years. Also whether Khaitan eventually overtakes Amarchand. It will need to gain a lot of credibility before it can do so and strengthen some of its weak practices. Haigreve, RBJ and Bharat Anand are par excellence but the younger partners are strictly average.
Remains to be seen if AZB and JSA up their ante or let Khaitan consolidate its gains over the past few years. Also whether Khaitan eventually overtakes Amarchand. It will need to gain a lot of credibility before it can do so and strengthen some of its weak practices. Haigreve, RBJ and Bharat Anand are par excellence but the younger partners are strictly average.[/quote]
Its still a wrong lineup. JSA is without doubt better than AZB where the whims and petulant fancies of a certain managing partner have made the place a joke. It seems AZB is good only at exporting good lawyers to other firms and retaining duds for itself. This kind of concentration of arbitrary power is absent at JSA where checks and balances exist to prevent any one person thinking they are god's gift to mankind or womankind.
No wonder, law firms lot are no better or worse than the their coporate or litigation colleagues.