Deals Feed

Phoenix Legal obtained a stay, by the Supreme Court, on the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order that had directed all vehicles plying at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport to be converted to using only CNG as fuel.

Sunil Mittal-led mobile infrastructure major Bharti Infratel has announced the merger with Indus Towers to create a combined entity with an equity value of Rs 96,500 crores ($14.6bn), making it the world’s second largest telecom tower company after Beijing-owned China Tower, with more than 163,000 towers and having presence in all the 22 circles in India, reported Business Standard and Mint.

Online payment and e-commerce platform, Paytm has made a strategic investment in the resultant joint entity of hyper local deals discovery platforms Nearbuy and Little Internet by infusing fresh funds of over Rs 162 crores ($25m) and acquiring a majority stake of 51%, reported The Economic Times and Mint. The merged entity expected to be valued over $100m and hold a market share of 88%, is said to have been arranged by Paytm as a strategic move to provide their merchant partners an opportunity to offer deals to acquire new customers and grow their business.

ICICI Venture, the private equity arm of India’s largest private-sector lender ICICI Bank, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake of around 14% in popular women’s legwear brand Go Colors owned by Chennai-based apparel maker, Go Fashion India by investing Rs 100 crores (around $15.6m), through its fourth PE fund – India Advantage Fund Series 4, as reported by VC Circle and The Economic Times. The current investment is the ICICI Ventures’s first retail apparel investment in the past decade and also marks as the second for the women’s apparel brand, pursuant to an initial investment of Rs 60 crores by Sequoia Capital India Investments IV in November, 2014, wherein Sequoia acquired 33.33% stake in Go Fashion India.

“In a deal led by Reliance Jio director Akash Ambani, Reliance Industries today signed an agreement for merging the digital music service Saavn with JioMusic to create a digital media platform with global reach having total value of over $1 billion,” reported PTI.

US-based fund manager, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) along with co-investors have announced the acquisition of Asia’s largest renewable energy firm, Equis Energy through a 100% cash deal, as reported earlier by VC Circle and The Economic Times. The deal is considered to be the the largest renewable energy generation acquisition in history and was completed on January 19, 2018.

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.

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.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) acted as the Indian legal advisors to the Marvell Technology Group in the transaction and was represented by partner Probir Roy Chowdhury along with principal associate Vishnu Nair.

DSK Legal assisted Bharat Forge in the drafting, reviewing, negotiating and revising of the transaction and closing documents and was represented by partner Narendra Dingankar and senior associate Varun Shah.

As reported in a number of publications, Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop One is exploring entering India with the largely untested ultra-fast transportation technology.

The Indian capital markets have a new international king, at least going by law firms and volumes of initial public offerings (IPO), and it’s Sidley Austin, in a league table dominated by a completely new list of firm names after a swathe of some big-name partner moves in the past years.

Khaitan & Co has filed more IPO drafts than any other firm in 2017 just ahead of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, in a market where downward pricing pressures have made it tough across the board.

Symbiosis Pune 2009 alumnus Utpal Kant and RMLNLU Lucknow 2011 alumnus Prashant Kanha started up corporate and litigation firm Sequitur in Noida this month, and helped Pune based backpacking hospitality platform Backpacker Panda raise $1.4m.

Leading investment and financial services firm, Jupiter Capital has recently completed the acquisition of up to 33 lakh shares amounting to nearly 66% of BSE-listed non-banking financial company TRC Financial Services, by way of an open offer to the shareholders and contractual arrangements for an aggregate transaction value of Rs 5.92 crores (around $924,000). The offer price of the fully paid shares of TRC Financial Services was quoted at Rs 18 per share.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) Bangalore-based partner Reeba Chacko led for BigBasket, with partner Akshay Bhat and principal associate S Harish. The firm also acted for the existing investors.

Gurgaon-based upcoming micro-delivery grocery platform has secured Rs 19 crores (around $3m) in a Pre-Series A funding round, led by Unilever Ventures Holdings the investment arm of Unilever PLC, as reported by The Times of India and Mint. The grocery delivery platform had raised around $500k in another Pre-Series A funding round from Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, earlier in August, 2017.

India reversed its trend of death row population spike since last year, with a drop of nearly 27% in the number of prisoners sentenced to death by sessions courts in 2017, according to the second NLU Delhi Death Penalty Report.

Hero Enterprises, led by ex-Hero MotoCorp joint MD Sunil Kant Munjal has acquired 25% of the share capital in Mumbai-based consumer lighting firm Corvi LED Light through an investment of Rs 63 crores (around $10m), as reported by The Economic Times and Business Standard.