Deals Feed

Amarchand Mangaldas and K&L Gates advised US-based Par Pharmaceuticals and its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary Par Formulations on its acquisition of Chennai-based Ethics Biolabs, which was advised by HSB Partners.

Amarchand Delhi partners Amit Kumar and Arvind Sharma, principal associate designate Janani Sekhar and senior associate Ananda Malhotra acted for Par Pharmaceuticals.

HSB partners TK Bhaskar and Varun Sriram with associate Anantha Krishnan Iyer acted for Ethics Biolabs and its selling promoters. Ethics conducts “bioavailability, bioequivalence, pharmacokinetic and clinical end point studies for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies”, started an Amarchand press release. The value of the deal, which closed on 14 January, was confidential.

Desai & Diwanji and Luthra & Luthra acted on the sale of Jaipur Mahua Tollway, a four-laning project conessionnaire of the Jaipur-Mahua section of National Highway 11, for Rs 525 crore to ISQ Asia Infrastructure I, an affiliate of US-based fund I Squared Capital.

Desai & Diwanji Mumbai partner Ketaki Gor Mehta, assisted by associates Niharika Mepani and Rahul Deodhar, acted for the IJM group.

Luthra & Luthra partners Sameen Vyas, Manmeet Singh and Suyash Srivastava, assisted by senior associate Viplav Sharma and associates Anubha Sital and Shantanu Gupta, acted for ISQ

Only 74 per cent of equity shares will be sold now, with the remaining 26 per cent being sold after approval from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through put and call options.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) acted for Piramal Enterprises which invested Rs 65 crores in the development of a residential-cum-commercial project of around 630,000 square feet on Bangalore’s Sarjapur Road, Bangalore by Krishna E Campus, which was advised by Wadia Ghandy.

JSA Bangalore partners Vivek Chandy, Raj Ramachandran and Malini Raju, with senior associate Asok Chacko Thomas and associate Lalu John Philip assisted Piramal.

Krishna E Campus, which is an affiliate of KMB Estates, was advised by Wadia Ghandy Bangalore partner Ankit Majmudar, who is due to join Platinum Partners early next year.

The deal involved advice on title, investment and due diligence. Chandy commented: “The transaction was quite interesting as the same involved corporate restructuring of KECPL and exit of one of the promoters at the same time as the investment was being made.”

Rajani Singhania & Partners acted for online financial services marketplace Apna Paisa Marketing and Services and its promoters in its merger with Trilegal-advised Casa Capital Management, which is a financial services holding company.

Rajani Singhania Mumbai partner Preeti Balwani, with senior associate Swati Rout and associate Varun Shah acted for Apna Paisa, while Trilegal Mumbai partner Ashwyn Misra and associate Saswat Subasit acted for Casa Capital.

Casa will take a stake in Apna Paisa, while the Apna Paisa promoters will take compulsorily convertible preference shares of the equity share capital of the merged Apna and Casa entity, which is expected to complete within the next 18 months.

DSK Legal advised Kancor Ingredients in selling a majority stake to French company Mane SA, Switzerland which was advised by Crawford Bayley.

DSK managing partner Anand Desai with partner Ajay Shaw and senior associates Pragya Dhamija and Aditee Mohta acted for Kancor.

Crawford partner Sanjay Asher acted for Mane, which is an associate of V Mane Fils in France. Asher was assisted by principal associate Bhumika Batra and associates Sachita Shetty and Sanskriti Relekar.

The domestic food and beverages supplier Kancor entered into a joint venture with V Mane to develop export products, reported the Business Standard.

Khaitan & Co advised BMM Cements and its promoters on their Rs 560 crore ($90m) buy of Sagar Cements, which was advised by Tatva Legal.

Khaitan Bangalore partner Ganesh Prasad acted for BMM Cements. Tatva Hyderabad partners Shailendra Komatreddy and Rajeev Reddy acted for Sagar Cements.

The deal was approved by Hyderabad-based Sagar’s board of directors In September.

Desai & Diwanji acted for Hyderabad Chemicals and its shareholders in its Rs 450 crore sale of 74 per cent stake to Japanese listed company Nihon Nohyaku which was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA).

D&D Mumbai partner Vihang Virkar and senior associate Ayesha Rai acted for Hyderabad Chemicals. Virkar said in an email: “The promoters of Hyderabad Chemicals are new clients of the firm and we look forward developing our association with them.”

JSA partner Vikram Ragani with Anand Lakra, Bir Bahadur Singh and Suren Sundaram acted for Nihon Nohyaku, with Japanese law firm Mori Hamada Masumoto.

The Rs 10,000-crore agrochemical industry in India is one of Asia’s largest markets and is expected to attract many more multinational companies for inbound M&A, reported the Economic Times.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) and AZB & Partners advised the promoters of Curatio Health Care on the Rs 95 crore sale of 33.36 per cent of its stake to Sequoia, which was advised by Khaitan & Co and Themis Law Associates.

JSA Chennai partner Aarthi Sivanandh, senior associate Tamara Devanandan and associates Revathi Muralidharan, Sahana Raghunathan and Bharath Sridhar and AZB Mumbai partner Essaji Vahanvati and associate Manan Mehta acted for the promoters.

Khaitan Bangalore partner Ganesh Prasad and associates Vineet Shingal and Mukund Thirumalai Srikanth together Themis senior associate Ashwani Verma and Dheeraj Khanna and associate Hardik Bhatia acted for Sequoia.

Sequoia has made 12 healthcare investments in India, including this deal, spread across verticals such as diagnostic services, healthcare IT, patient services, pharmaceuticals, and product development services, reported the Times of India.

Amarchand Mangaldas together with Al Tamimi advised Warburg Pincus, which invested around Rs 1,200 crore for a 10 per cent stake in Kalyan Jewellers, advised by AZB & Partners.

Luthra & Luthra and Clifford Chance advised CLSA India, Citigroup Global Markets India, Credit Suisse Securities (India), ICICI Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and IDFC Securities as joint book running lead managers on CESC’s $80m qualified institutional placement (QIP) of 7.6m shares, which was reported Mint and others. CESC was advised by Khaitan & Co.

Luthra Mumbai capital markets partner Manan Lahoty and Clifford Chance Singapore partner Rahul Guptan acted for the lead managers on the Rule 144A/Regulation S QIP of 7,621,118 equity shares at a price of Rs 644 per equity share.

Khaitan Mumbai executive director Sudheer Bassi and partner Nikhilesh Panchal acted for the power utility.

Induslaw advised online and app-based taxi booking service Olacabs in raising Rs 1281 crore ($210m) from SoftBank, which was advised by AZB & Partners and Morrison Foerster.

Vaish Associates advised Jaiprakash Power Ventures (JPVL) in selling its BASPA Hydro Electric Project and its Karcham Wangtoo project to JSW Energy for Rs 9,700 crore.

JSW Energy was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai partners L Viswanathan, Tushar Mavani and Ramanuj Kumar and senior associates Prateek Shroff and Abhimanyu Ghosh.

Vaish partner Bomi Daruwala, senior associates Yatin Narang and Shrinivas Sankaran and associates Tanya Sharma and Priyesh Sharma acted for JPVL.

The board of directors of JPVL approved the transfer of the 1391 MW projects into its subsidiary HBPC as a going concern through a scheme of arrangement which would would enable HBPC to be acquired by JSW Energy, reported The Hindu.

Linklaters and Talwar Thakore Associates (TTA) advised the lending and underwriting banks on Tata Steel UK Holdings, which took a term loan and revolving credit facilities of $3.05bn to refinance its bank debt.

Linklaters London partner Narayan Iyer, who had rejoined Linklaters a year ago from TTA, and Singapore partner Philip Badge, and capital markets partner Kevin Wong and TTA partner Rahul Gulati acted for the banks.

JSA and Slaughter & May advised Tata.

The new financing structure consists of a five-year loan of a €370 million, a six-year revolving credit facility for working capital of £700 million and a seven-year loan of €1.8 billion, with more favourable terms and pricing relative to the earlier debt, reported Mint.

Tatva Legal advised US-based technology company Brillio's subsidiary Brillio Technology in buying data analytics start up Ashley Marketelligent, which was advised by Samvad Partners. 

Tatva partners NK Dilip and Raghunath Anathapur and senior associate Rashmi Talukdar acted for Brillio. Samvad partner Neela Badami acted for Ashley. 

The deal is the latest in a list of recent M&As by technology companies in India, with Facebook buying Little Eye Labs and Yahoo snapping up Bookpad this year, reported the Economic Times.

IndusLaw advised Snapdeal again on its largest round of investment to date with 12 other law firm teams.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised German shipping and logistics provider Dachser in acquiring 50 per cent shares of Dachser India from its local joint venture partner the AFL Group which was advised by AZB & Partners.

JSA Bombay M&A partner Sandeep Mehta, senior associate Arup Pereira and associates Punita Gupta and Adil Ladha acted for Dachser. AZB Mumbai partner Abhijit Joshi, senior associate Anand Shah and associate Navroz Vakil acted for the AFL Group.

This deal was part of a larger transaction by which Dascher acquired AFL's stake in a separate JV in Thailand and majority stake in another venture in Bangladesh, according to VC Circle.

Amarchand Mangaldas together with Japanese firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune advised Sumitomo Corporation Japan, with Amarchand also advising SMAS Auto Leasing India on acquiring the auto leasing business of New Delhi-based Carzonrent, which was advised by Kochhar & Co. The acquisition was for Rs 200 crore, as reported by the Times of India.

Amarchand Delhi partner Puja Sondhi, principal associate Ramanuj Gopalan, senior associate Sushrut Biswal and associate Vasudha Sharma acted for Sumitomo and SMAS. Kochhar Delhi partner Niti Paul, senior associate Maureen Z Ralte and associate Akshit Kapoor acted for Carzonrent. [Correction: The first published story had the wrong first name for Kapoor. The error is regretted.]

SMAS, a Japanese automobile joint venture, enters the Indian market through this deal, reported Mint.

AZB & Partners advised dialysis service provider DaVita Healthcare Partners in buying 49 per cent stake in Express Clinics which was advised by Economic Laws Practice (ELP).

AZB Mumbai partner Alka Nalavadi and senior associates Percis Anklesaria, Vijay Manjrekar and Arvind Ramesh acted for Davita.

ELP Mumbai partner Sujjain Talwar, associate partner Vinayak Burman, senior associate Archana Khosla and associate Amoolya Narayan acted for Express and its existing shareholders Somerset and Lotus Management.

DaVita had entered the Indian subcontinent in 2011, acquiring a strategic stake in NEA backed NephroLife Care according to Deal Curry.

Pro bono legal assistance NGO iProbono won a Delhi high court appeal yesterday for a now six-year-old rape victim, with the high court slamming the magistrate and trial judge in her case for questioning her like an adult witness while recording her testimony.

J Sagar Associates advised Bay Capital Investment Managers and the promoters of Sterling Holiday Resorts India on selling Sterling for Rs 870 crore to the Prem Watsa-backed Thomas Cook India, which was advised by AZB & Partners.

JSA Mumbai partners Sandeep Mehta and Rajesh Pal and senior associate Malav Shah acted for Bay Capital and Sterling’s promoters. AZB partner Ashwin Ramanathan, senior associate Bhavi Sanghvi and associate Rinki Ganguli acted for Thomas Cook.

This is Thomas Cook India's second purchase after Ikya Human Solutions in February 2013 and marks its foray into the hospitality sector, reported the TOI.

Amarchand Mangaldas maintained its top spot in intelligence provider mergermarket’s M&A league rankings this quarter.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs in the sale of its 73 per cent stake in City View Bangalore Properties to a joint venture floated by Blackstone and realty player Embassy Group. Blackstone and Embassy were advised by Amarchand Mangaldas and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

JSA Bangalore partner Vivek K Chandy and senior associate Siddharth K Vedula acted for Goldman Sachs.Amarchand Bangalore partner Reeba Chacko and senior associate Kota Chandan acted for Blackstone and Embassy.

Goldmans exited the JV through the deal after several failed attempts since 2012, reported the ET. The remaining stake in it is held by Westcourt and Century Real Estate Holdings.

ICICI Bank issued $500m of 3.50% 2020-due notes under 144A/Reg-S in its $7.5bn Global Medium Term Note (MTN) programme, through its Dubai branch, as reported by PTI.

ICICI instructed Amarchand Mangaldas partner Niloufer Lam with senior associate Madhav Kanoria and associate Aayushi Anand on Indian laws, with Davis Polk & Wardwell as international legal adviser, and UAE firm Al Tamimi via partner Mamoon Khan with Cherry Turcal advising on Dubai and UAE laws.

Latham & Watkins Singapore partner Min Yee Ng, supported by associates Dhiraj Joseph and Zhu An Lu, acted for lead managers Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Read on for the hottest M&As, fundraisings and financings of the fortnight.

Khaitan & Co won a copyright infringement suit in the Bombay high court for once-$7.6bn King.com, the creator of the hugely popular mobile device game Candy Crush Saga .

Desai & Diwanji partner Siddharth Mody acted for Aster DM Healthcare, which invested Rs 41 crore ($6.8m) in Sri Sainatha MultiSpeciality Hospital, which owns and manages the Prime brand of hospitals in Hyderabad.

Chennai-based VNS Legal partner Shiva Shankar acted for Sri Sainath.

The Desai & Diwanji team also included senior associate Ashraf Lala, and associates Rumma Panchmatia and Ankesh Jain.

AZB & Partners came out on top of a 2014 first-half-year league table released by corporate analytics company Venture Intelligence, recording 22 deals worth more than $2bn.

Some of the deals lawyers have been working on this month that we didn’t manage to cover separately.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) acted for Swiss lock maker Kaba Holding on increasing its investment in its Indian joint venture with Dorset to 74 per cent.

Luthra & Luthra partner Bobby Chandhoke advised the Indian shareholders in the JV, Dorset, while JSA partners Upendra Nath Sharma & Pallavi Puri with associates Shantanu Jindel and Pranav Gadi acted for Kaba.

The additional acquisition of 25 per cent by Kaba was structured as a preferential alotment and also included three additional business acquisitions by the Swiss company via a slump sale, as reported by VCCircle.

Khaitan & Co Delhi has advised cinema giant and long-standing client Inox on its Rs 182 crore complete acquisition of Satyam Cineplexes, which drafted in Luthra & Luthra.

Khaitan & Co and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto advised Tokyo-based SBS Holdings in buying a 66 per cent stake in Transpole Logistics, which was advised by Trilegal.

Khaitan Delhi partner Rajat Mukherjee, associate partner Harsh Kumar, executive director Daksha Baxi and competition partner Manas Kumar Chaudhuri, together with Mori Hamada of counsel Yohei Koyama acted for SBS. The acquisition is costing SBS Rs 446 crore ($73.5m), according to Dealcurry.

Trilegal Mumbai partner Amit Tambe with senior associate Anjali Menon and associate Kevin Peter acted for Transpole and the existing investors – Everstone and Fidelity.