Corporate M&A

IndusLaw’s Hyderabad office advised Kaizen Private Equity, which with German publishing giant Bertelsmann invested $4m (Rs 22 crore) in AuthorGen Technologies, that was advised by Dua Associates in Mumbai.

AuthorGen’s majority shareholder Educomp, which will become a minority shareholder after the sale, was represented by Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partner Kalpataru Tripathy and senior associate Promode Murugavelu.

Dua Mumbai partner Vinod Joseph, senior associate Sugandha Kamal and associate Dhrupad Vaghani assisted AuthorGen and its founder Harman Singh.

IndusLaw Hyderabad partner Satya Sree Akella and associates Basava Rao and Kaustuv Banerjee acted for Kaizen.

AuthorGen is involved in providing online classes to teachers with its flagship product WizIQ, reported Mint.

AZB & Partners advised business process outsourcing firm Genpact in its buy of India-based healthcare payer industry service provider Felix Software Solutions, which was advised by US attorney Cyrus Kashef.

AZB & Partners Delhi partner Vinati Kastia with senior associates Bharat Bahadur and Daksh Trivedi acted for Felix. Felix was bought by Genpact as part of its purchase of the US-based Jawood, which had sub-contracted Felix, according to the Financial Express.

The healthcare payer industry is seeing enormous growth due to regulatory changes, including creation of health insurance exchanges, and the development of alternative risk and payment models, stated a report in the Economic Times.

Sino-Singaporean joint venture law firm Dacheng Wong Alliance’s India practice advised on Singaporean e-waste company Enviro-Hub Holdings' (EHH) Rs 110 crore ($20m) sale of its subsidiary to Indian IT company Cerebra Integrated Technologies.

Former Lexygen Singapore partner Yang Yen Thaw alongside fellow Dacheng India co-head and managing principal Aloysius Wee, and senior associate Richa Chaturvedi acted for the Bangalore-based Cerebra, which bought EHH's wholly-owned Singaporean subsidiary Cimelia Resource Recovery.

Consultancy firm Grant Thornton India advised on the financial aspects of the deal. Yang Yen Thaw said no Indian firms acted on the deal.

With this deal Cerebra would become one of the first global Indian multinational companies in the area of electronics and electrical equipment (WEEE) waste, an industry estimated at around $20 billion currently, according to Business Standard.

AZB & Partners advised British travel major Thomas Cook’s erstwhile Indian subsidiary in buying a 74 per cent stake in upcoming Indian staffing company Ikya Human Capital Solutions for Rs 256 crore ($47.6m). Ikya was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas.

AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Ashwin Ramanathan with senior associates Nandish Vyas and Bhavi Sanghvi acted for Thomas Cook (India) and Canadian investment company Fairbridge Capital which had acquired the Indian subsidiary from the UK’s Thomas Cook PLC in May last year.

This, according to the Economic Times, was Fairbridge’s first acquisition after the Thomas Cook buy.

Amarchand Mangaldas Bangalore partner Reeba Chacko with principal associate Akshay Bhat acted for Ikya.

The deal marks the complete exit of venture capital fund India Equity Partners from Ikya, reported VCCircle. India Equity Partners had bought a 59 per cent stake in the Bangalore-based staffing firm since 2008.

AZB & Partners advised the Dabur India promoters, the Burman Family, which picked up around Rs 50 crore ($9m) stake in DMI Finance, which was advised by start-up Amicus Advocates & Solicitors.

Amarchand Mangaldas topped the 2012 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) India rankings released by data provider mergermarket, in terms of advising on the biggest value M&As in 2012. In terms of the total number of M&A deals advised on, Amarchand was runners up to third-time leader Desai & Diwanji.

Khaitan & Co and Clifford Chance advised Chinese textile machinery manufacturing company Jiangsu Jinsheng in its CHF 500m or Rs 2,940 crore ($537m) buy of the textile components business of Swiss engineering company Oerlikon which was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

DSK Legal, with German law firm Luther LLP, advised Switzerland-based road construction equipment maker Ammann group in its Rs 280 crore ($51m) buy of 70 per cent equity in Gujarat’s Apollo group’s road-equipment business. Apollo was advised by Desai & Diwanji.

DSK Legal Mumbai partners Raksha Kothari and Nirav Shah with associates Karuna Thapa, Gaurav Mistry and Malabika Boruah, and Luther Frankfurt partner Jorg Sommer acted for Ammann which will form a 70:30 construction equipment joint venture (JV) with Apollo Earthmovers, according to DSK Legal.

Desai & Diwanji Mumbai partner Vihang Virkar with associate partner Aneesh Gupte acted for the Apollo Group.

The newly formed road-construction equipment JV – Apollo Construction Equipment (ACEL) - is valued at Rs 400 crore and Apollo group’s asphalt plants and the paver business will be transferred to ACEL on a slump sale basis, according to VC Circle.

Amarchand Mangaldas, with Jones Day, advised healthcare BPO Apollo Health Street (AHSL) and its promoters in selling out for Rs 1000 crore ($184m) to US-headquartered BPO Sutherland Global Services (SGS). SGS was advised by S&R Associates and Latham & Watkins.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai managing partner Cyril Shroff with Bangalore corporate partner Reeba Chacko, and Jones Day Ohio counsel Deepak Reddy acted for AHSL and its shareholders Apollo Hospitals, Maxwell, Eliza Holdings and Healthcare Investments.

Apollo Hospitals holds 40 per cent in AHSL and the rest of the shareholders are private equity investors. AHSL has 150 clients in India, according to Reuters.

S&R Associates Delhi partners Rajat Sethi and Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, with associates Radhika Iyer, Dhruv Nath, Radhika Agrawal and Lakshmi Pradeep, and Latham & Watkins Silicon Valley partner Tony Richmond acted for SGS, which belongs to multinational conglomerate Sutherland group.

SGS is one of the largest independent BPOs in the world with over 30,000 employees globally, according to the DNA.

Sutherland outbid BPO Genpact to buy AHSL, reported The Hindu.

Chennai-based start-up Vichar Partners has advised Sree Ramcides Chemicals on its Yen 1,495 million (Rs 98 crore) acquisition by Japanese company SDS Biotech KK, which was advised by Alliance Legal and Jones Day.

PXV Law Partners advised its old client Aurora Integrated Systems and its promoters in selling out to Tata group’s Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) which was advised by AZB & Partners.

PXV Law Partners partners Deepto Roy and Pingal Khan with associate Namritha Joseph acted for the Bangalore-based Aurora which claims to be India’s leading system integrator offering field tested UAS technology. It started up in March 2011, backed by the Tata group.

AZB & Partners Bangalore partners Vivek Bajaj and Niyatha Srinivasa with associate Vydyanathan L acted for TASL which is the wholly owned aircraft and defense systems subsidiary of Tata Sons.

Khaitan & Co, with Herbert Smith Freehills, advised the Japanese Otsuka Pharmaceutical Factory (OPF), in co-investing Rs 1050 crore ($193m) in Indian pharma company Claris Lifesciences, to form a joint venture (JV). Claris was advised by AZB & Partners. Japan’s Mitsui & Co, advised by Amarchand Mangladas, was the other investor.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi advised cinema chain PVR, which is buying rival chain Cinemax India by acquiring shares from the promoter – who are advised by Wadia Ghandy - and a subsequent open offer valued at around Rs 540 crore ($100m).

Fox Mandal advised Japanese tourism and logistics company Nissin Corporation in buying 44 per cent stake in its Indo-Japanese joint venture (JV) Nissin ABC Logistics, from JV partner ABC India. Amarchand Mangaldas advised ABC India.

Fox Mandal Kolkata partner Shourya Mandal acted for Nissin Corporation.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partner Kalpataru Tripathy with principal associate Abhishek Guha, senior associate Saurya Bhattacharya and associate Roopal Banthia acted for ABC India.

Breaking: Platinum Partners and Slaughter and May advised London-based drinks giant Diageo on its overall complete £1.28bn (Rs 11,166 crore) acquisition of Vijay Mallya-promoted United Spirits, which was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai office, as well as Kanga & Co and Herbert Smith Freehills.

PXV Law Partners, together with its French best friend firm DS Avocats, acted for French $1.9bn agricultural conglomerate Groupe Limagrain that bought Delhi-based vegetable seeds maker Century Seeds, represented by Bangalore firm Narasappa Doraswamy Raja.

PXV stepped up with partners GT Thomas Phillippe and Anuj Sahay and senior associate Shivani Chugh for Groupe Limagrain, which also drew on French firm DS Avocats partner Olivier Monange at home.

DS Avocats had entered into a best friendship with RDA Legal, as PXV was called in 2010.

Narasappa Doraswamy partner Harish Narasappa represented Century Seeds.

According to the Economic Times the French company paid between Rs 140-145 crore ($25-26m) in an all-cash deal, in one of the largest M&A deals in the seeds space.