Deals Feed

Desai & Diwanji advised auto parts maker Amtek Auto, which bought 51.2 per cent in the Jamshedpur-based JMT Auto for Rs 110 crore ($18.4m), according to VCCircle. JMT Auto was advised by Amicus.

Desai & Diwanji Gurgaon-based partner Raghav Mathur assisted by senior associates Nikhil Sachdeva and Jinni Sinha with associates Amanjot Malhi, Nakul Batra and Nitya Chadha acted for Amtek. The company made an open offer to purchase an additional 26 per cent equity in JMT for Rs 55.6 crore.

Amicus co-founding partner Shivi Agarwal acted for JMT, which had revenues of over Rs 300 crore on 31 March, according to the Economic Times. Amtek is backed by funds ChrysCapital and Warburg Pincus, and ChrysCapital also holds 30.5 per cent in JMT, according to VCCircle.

Vaish Associates advised pre-school network Brainworks Learning Systems and its investor Kusumbala Investments in selling out for Rs 5 crore ($824,810) to pre-school network Tree House Education & Accessories. Tree House was advised by Wadia Ghandy.

Vaish Associates Mumbai corporate and banking partner Sandhya Iyer with senior associate Yatin Narang and associate Ishita Roy acted for Brainworks which, according to Business Standard, has 13 self-operated and 51 franchisee centres all over India.

Wadia Ghandy Ahmedabad partner Tanvish Bhatt with senior associate Shreya Desai acted for Tree House which will now have 450 centres across India, reported the paper.

Amarchand Mangaldas advised Videocon Hydrocarbon Holdings (VHHL) on the Indian leg of the $2.475bn (Rs 14,827 crore) sale of its 10 per cent stake in a Mozambique gas field in Brazil.

IndusLaw advised the founders of Redbus and its early investors Helion, Inventus and Seed Fund, in selling out the online bus-ticketing service for $100m (Rs 597 crore) to the Ibibo Group, which is a joint venture of South African Media giant Naspers and Chinese internet company Tencent.

Amarchand Mumbai partners Vandana Shroff and Ajay Joseph acted for the Ibibo Group, which owns online travel aggregators Goibibo and TravelBoutiqueOnline.

IndusLaw Bangalore partner Suneeth Katarki with associates Basava Rao, Rashi Saraf, and Sherill Pal acted for the Bangalore-based Pilani Softlabs’ founders Phanindra Sama and Charan Padmaraju and the other investors in the buy-out of the seven-year old company.

In 2012 RedBus earned Rs 350 crore selling tickets over Rs 600 crore on more than 10,000 bus routes, according to Mint.

Amarchand Mangaldas advised State Bank of India (SBI), SBI Trustee and SBI AMC in buying Japan’s second-largest brokerage group Daiwa Security Group’s Daiwa Mutual Fund. Daiwa was advised by AZB & Partners. SBI will buy the Japanese fund for more than Rs 1.3 crore ($220,000), reports Mint.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai corporate partners Ashwath Rau and Aysswarya Murthi acted for the buyers, which will acquire Daiwa’s sponsorship, trusteeship and management.AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Alka Nalavadi and associate Rushabh Maniar acted for Daiwa Asset Management Company’s Indian and Japanese arms and Daiwa Trustee Company.

Daiwai Mutual Fund is selling out to SBI because it wants to cut costs and jobs outside Japan, and because India poses regulatory uncertainties, waning retail investor interest in equity markets, wafer-thin margins and a highly competitive environment, reported the Times of India.

Dua Associates advised advertisement seller Amagi Media Labs in its second fundraising round of Rs 27.5 crore ($4.7m) from global venture capital (VC) fund Mayfield FVCI, which was advised by Economic Laws Practice (ELP).

Dua Associates Mumbai partner Vinod Joseph with senior associate Sugandha Kamal and associate Rajat Agarwal acted for Amagi which, according to Medianama, targets city-based advertisers wanting to broadcast ads on TV.

ELP Mumbai partner Yashojit Mitra acted for Mayfield, which has $2.7bn assets under management, according to VCCircle.

Luthra & Luthra advised Max India’s year-old subsidiary arm Antara Senior Living in setting up a Dehradun-based living community for senior citizens.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Bangalore-based milling machine maker Milltec Group in Mauritian fund Multiples’ buy-out of half its equity for Rs 250 crores ($43.3m). Multiples was advised by Khaitan & Co Bangalore.

JSA partners Sajai Singh and Gerald Manoharan, senior associate Prashant Kumar and associate Roy George acted for Milltec, also advising it on documentation for a Rs 35 crore loan from L&T Finance.

Khaitan & Co Bangalore partner Ganesh Prasad and principal associate Vineet Shingal and associate Sanjay Khan acted for Multiples.

Dua Associates Bangalore partner Srinivas BR acted for the selling shareholders.

Seth Dua & Associates advised Chinese telco ZTE Corporation in filing a winding up petition against Indian phone service provider Loop Mobile in the Bombay high court

Amarchand Delhi, Jones Day Cleveland and Sullivan Cromwell London acted on Gurgaon’s Apollo Tyres $2.5bn takeover of Ohio-based Cooper.

Amarchand Mangaldas is advising publishers of the Hindustan Times HT Media on its Rs 25 crore buyback of 2.05 per cent of its shares, which commenced on 3 June and will be open latest until 13 May 2014.

Amarchand Delhi partner Inder Mohan Singh, principal associate designate Kunal Mehra and senior associate Aayush Kapoor are acting for the media house.

They are advising HT Media on various transaction related issues from time to time and have drafted the public announcement, various notifications with the stock exchanges and the regulator, and documentation, according to a statement from the firm.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company is the manager to the buyback. Amarchand had acted on the media company’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2005.

Amarchand for Adani Ports, Khaitan & Co and Jones Day step up for the banks.

DMH for YES Bank founder family’s SPV, Kanga for sellers Citi and GSK.

Desai Diwanji, Freshfields, Linklaters, TTA sold German machining company to India auto maker

Amarchand Mangaldas and Latham & Watkins advised London-listed mining giant Vedanta on largest ever bond offering by an Indian corporate.

 Khaitan & Co and Davis & Gilbert advised Japanese media giant Dentsu and its Indian subsidiary in picking up 80 per cent stake in Indian digital agency Webchutney. Webchutney was advised by SA Partners.

Trilegal advised British multinational bank Standard Chartered in buying out US investment bank Morgan Stanley’s Indian private wealth management unit. Morgan Stanley was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas.

Three firms offload 81 million shares of real estate giant through the still novel institutional placement programme (IPP).

Amarchand Mangaldas, Desai & Diwanji, Luthra & Luthra and Linklaters are advising Fortis Healthcare on its institutional placement programme (IPP) that could raise up to $58m (Rs 320 crore).

Amarchand capital markets partner Yash Ashar in Mumbai acted for Fortis, while Luthra & Luthra Delhi-based capital markets partner Madhurima Mukherjee advised the lead managers Standard Chartered, JP Morgan and Religare.

Linklaters Singapore also advised the lead managers.

Desai & Diwanji partners Vishwang Desai and Srishti Ojha and associate Ishita Kashyap advised GIC Special Investments, in relation to the foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs).

The price under Chapter  VIII-A of SEBI’s ICDR regulations, will be no more than Rs 92 per share for up to around 35 million shares.

Three law firms structure preferential allotment of shares in BSE/NSE-listed company.

Amarchand top, Luthra 2nd, as Khaitan & Co makes first league table appearance in years.

Senior counsel Harish Salve got stuck into novel transactional law with ELP, Gagrats, Amarchand and DLA.

AZB & Simpsons reprised roles for KKR, with Amarchand and Davis Polk acting for the sellers.

Obhan & Associates, which is run by Anand & Anand and AZB alumni, bags deal opposite ALMT.

BMR’s latest recruit, Amit Khansaheb, seals second deal at consultancy’s legal arm.

PDS & Associates and DLA Piper advised Indian conglomerate PCM Group in its €36m (Rs 255 crore) acquisition of German international railway equipment conglomerate Rail One whose shareholders were advised by Hogan Lovells.

PDS & Associates Mumbai partner Sajid Mohamed, with DLA Piper Germany partner Benjamin Parameswaran and counsel Isaschar Nicolaysen and a raft of other DLA partners acted for the Siliguri-based Indian private company in acquiring the 118-year old German giant.

Hogan Lovells Berlin-based partner Jörg Meissner acted for Rail One shareholders. The €150m company with plants in Germany, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain and South Korea was acquired for €36m reported the Economic Times.

Linklaters partner Dr Eva Reudelhuber acted for the banks for the sellers.

AZB & Partners did the greatest number of deals (13) in the first quarter of this year, according to the mergermarket M&A deal rankings.

Fox Mandal advised US-based GAVIS Pharmaceuticals in its Rs 73.75 crore ($13.6m) brownfield investment in Bangalore-based pharma company Wintac, which was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA).

Big project M&A in the project space with Desai & Diwanji and Amarchand, while a project finance take-out scheme keeps Dhir busy.

Vaish Associates and Crawford Bayley advised Delhi-based liquor firm Globus Spirits in raising Rs 70 crore ($13m) from Templeton Strategic Emerging Markets Fund IV LDC (TSEM) which was advised by BMR Legal's new hire from Desai & Diwanji.

6 deals spanning private equity and high finance with Amarchand, AZB, Lexygen, Luthra, KSP, SNG…

Dua Associates v Saikrishna in trademarks; PXV, Desai & Diwanji in PE.

Rajani Associates advised brokerage house Motilal Oswal Private Equity (MOPE) which invested Rs 35 crore ($6.4m) in concrete blocks maker Magicrete Building Solutions, which was advised by Luthra & Luthra.

Rajani Associates founding partner Prem Rajani with partner Poorvi Sanjanwala, senior associate Karishma Jumani and associate Nishtha Mehta acted for MOPE which invested the amount through its funds India Business Excellence Fund IIA and India Business Excellence Fund II, according to a Rajani press release.

Luthra & Luthra Mumbai partner Bikash Jhawar with managing associate Amit Shetye and senior associate Rohan Shah acted for Magicrete, which was incorporated in 2008.

Magicrete is India’s largest maker of autoclaved aerated blocks, which are replacing red bricks in construction across India, according to the Economic Times and Deal Curry.

Recent deal & case highlights: The Bombay high court ordered the producer of Bollywood film Knockout to pay Rs 1.5 crore ($275,760) for copyright infringement of 20th Century Fox’s Hollywood movie Phonebooth, represented by Neolegal Associates. Plus Khaitan, Wadia Ghandy, Dhir & Dhir and more...

J Sagar Associates (JSA) and DLA Piper advised multinational certification services firm Bureau Veritas (BV), which will buy Indian and middle-eastern industrial-testing firm Sievert.

Sievert was advised by AZB & Partners Bangalore partner Srinath Dasari, senior associate Nanditha Gopal, and associate Veena Ganesh.

JSA Mumbai partner Sandeep Mehta with associates Aarti Iyer and Adil Ladha, and DLA Piper Middle East regional managing partner Abdul Aziz Al-Yaqout, legal director Diwakar Agarwal and associate Zara Merali acted for BV which will likely complete the acquisition in May 2013, according to its press release.

Sievert reported revenue of $33m in 2012, according to BV, and is engaged in the testing, inspection and certification using non-destructive technique businesses in India and the Middle East.

Khaitan & Co and Herbert Smith Freehills advised the ministry of finance in the Rs 11,470 crore ($2.1bn) disinvestment of 9.5 per cent in India’s largest thermal power producer NTPC through an offer for sale.

We know what Desai & Diwanji, HSA Advocates, I&S Associates, AZB & Partners, Fox Mandal and KS Partners and others did this month.

Allen & Overy (A&O) acted for Bharti Airtel, which issued bonds for the first time ever in a heavily oversubscribed offer for $1bn. Axon Partners and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy advised the underwriters.

Tatva Legal advised micro-financier Grameen Financial Services (GFSPL), which received Rs 37.5 crore ($6.8m) of funding from US-based Creation Investments that was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA).

Tatva Legal Bangalore senior associate Bhargava KS and manager Raghunath Ananthapur with assistance from partner Manav Nagaraj acted for Bangalore-headquartered GFSPL.

J Sagar Associates Delhi partner Lalit Kumar with associates Zain Pandit, John MA and Bharati Joshi acted for the social venture fund Creation Investments Capital Management.

Existing investors Microventures and Incofin also invested in this third round, according to the company's press release, raising a total of Rs 53.2 crore ($9.6m).

Breaking: Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and DSK Legal advised old-client Strides Arcolab in the $1.6bn+ sale of its injectables subsidiary Agila Specialties to Nasdaq-listed generic drugs-maker Mylan Inc.

Axon Partners advised the Delhi-based Jaypee group’s Jaiprakash Power Ventures (JPVL) in its Rs 950 crore ($175m) qualified institutional placement (QIP) of 12 per cent shares.

Fox Mandal advised state-owned power financer Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) in extending Rs 8,775 crore ($1.6bn) to the NTPC and Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) joint venture Nabhinagar Super Thermal Power Project.

Fox Mandal Delhi banking and finance partner Rajesh Sehgal with senior associate Rahul Tyagi and associate Bhupendra Verma acted for REC. NTPC and BSEB were advised in-house.

Majmudar & Partners and US law firm Kim Law Advisors advised San Francisco’s Burill & Company in its Rs 54 crore ($10m) primary and secondary investment in the Trilegal-advised Bangalore-based Strand Life Sciences, including buying out its lead investors WestBridge Capital and Ascent Capital. WestBridge was advised by AZB & Partners.

Majmudar Bangalore partner N Raja Sujith acted for Burill which is a diversified global financial services firm focussed on the life sciences sector.

Trilegal Bangalore partner Kosturi Ghosh acted for Strand in what Biospectrum Asia reported was a series B financing by Burill.

AZB & Partners Bangalore partner Srinath Dasari acted for WestBridge – a series A lead investor in Strand, which according to Startup Central had picked up a 20 per cent stake in the company for a reported $1.9m in 2002.

AZB & Partners advised India-focused infrastructure fund Macquarie SBI in its Rs 206 crore ($40m) buy of 74 per cent equity in the GMR group’s road project GMR Jadcherla Expressways (GJEL). GMR was advised by Link Legal.

AZB & Partners Mumbai co-founding partner Bahram Vakil, with senior associate Qais Jamal, acted for Macquarie SBI, which expanded its road portfolio. Macquarie SBI had two years ago invested in GMR infrastructure’s airport subsidiary, as reported in Mint at the time.

Link Legal Delhi corporate partner Anand Srivastava and senior associate Milind Jha acted for the GMR group, which is operating the Farukhnagar-Jadcherla highway in Andhra Pradesh under a concession agreement signed with the National Highway Authority of India, according to a GMR press release.

Khaitan & Co advised the British ITE group’s Cyprus-based subsidiary Airgate in its Rs 122 crore (£14m) buy of a 28.3 per cent stake in event management company Asian Business Exhibition and Conferences (ABEC), which was advised by AZB & Partners.

Khaitan & Co Delhi corporate partner Bharat Anand and direct tax executive director Daksha Baxi acted for Airgate, which bought the stake from Qatar’s investment bank Qinvest.

AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Shameek Chaudhuri acted for ABEC which runs 19 exhibitions across 11 vertical markets including construction, architecture, design, education, lifestyle, real estate, and oil & gas.

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.

Exclusive: Lexygen advised India-focused private equity (PE) fund Zephyr Peacock India and Singapore-based PE fund Credence Partners in their Rs 90 crore ($17m) joint investment in Singapore-based logistics company 20Cube. 20Cube was advised by Singapore law firm Alliance LLC. 

Lexygen partner Prashant Kataria with associates Amit Vyas, Vishnu Chandran and Aayushi Sharma acted for Zephyr and Credence on Indian law, as well as on leading the global due diligence assisted by Singapore law firm LawAsia senior associate Vincent Bu and Australian law firm Holding Redlich partner Darren Pereira.

The documentation was headed by Singapore law firm Kelvin Chia Partnership partner Andrew Lai.

Alliance LLC director Stanley Gan acted for the Chennai-headquartered international transportation and contract logistics provider 20Cube which has a presence in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Australia, UAE and Uganda.

Zephyr and Credence will pick up a minority stake in 20Cube, and Mint reported that this 12th investment by Zephyr into India, was its first ever in the logistics sector.

This deal marks this year’s second investment in a logistics company, according to the Economic Times, which yesterday reported that India’s logistics market is estimated at over $100bn with a growth rate of 20 per cent. According to ET, General Atlantic’s $104m investment in Fourcee Infrastructure in January 2012, was one of the largest PE investment in two years.

AZB & Partners advised oil and gas conglomerate Reliance Industries on the issuance of Rs 4,300 crore ($800m) of 5.875 per cent senior perpetual notes.

M&A and financings from the last three weeks starring Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), HSA Advocates, Khaitan & Co, Talwar Thakore & Associates, and Khaitan Sud & Partners.

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.

Luthra & Luthra advised India’s largest pre-schools’ operator Tree House Education and Accessories in preferentially allotting its equity shares for Rs 81.25 crore ($15m) to Aditya Birla Private Equity – Sunrise Fund (ABPESF) and Omidyar Network (ON) Mauritius and warrants to promoters, which were advised in-house.

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.

Phoenix Legal advised old-client real estate company Ramprastha group in Cyprus-incorporated investor Clearwater Capital Partners’ (CCP) Rs 100 crore ($18m) investment into it. CCP was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA).

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas has held fort as project finance leader for the second consecutive year since replacing Luthra & Luthra in 2011 at the top of the top 10, according to data provided by Dealogic. 10 front-runners this year produced less than half of the total projects revenue docketed in 2011.

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.

Amarchand Mangaldas acts on a hoard of financings, while Luthra & Luthra sticks to the markets. Also in this deal round-up: JSA, Crawford, Tatva, AZB, Kochhar, Desai & Diwanji, Trilegal, Linklaters, Clifford Chance, Jones Day, Allen & Overy, Milbank, and other foreign firms..