Law firms

Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) executive partner MP Devnath has left the firm after 20 years to go independent.

K Law has hired HSA Advocates associate partner Nilesh Chandra as a partner in its Delhi banking and project finance practice.

Angel Investors, The Chennai Angels and Lets Venture have made an investment of Rs. 3 crores in Pre Series A Funding in Netree E-services Pvt. Ltd, engaged in creating a retailer oriented networking platform, as reported by Business Standard.

As expected, Trilegal has completed its partnership vote today to admit AZB & Partners competition co-head Nisha Kaur Uberoi, after beginning voting yesterday as first reported on Legally India.

“Police will book five men including a tourist guide for alleged gang-rape of an American woman at a five-star hotel in Delhi in March,” reported the Hindustan Times in December adding, “The woman has said the tourist guide befriended her while showing her tourist spots in Delhi and adjoining states. The woman said on the night of the incident, he entered her room with four of his friends, also related to the travel agency, on the pretext of discussing their next day’s journey route plan. They had drinks in the room after which the tourist guide forced himself on her, she said. The others also took turns to rape her before leaving the room, said a source familiar with the complaint. The traumatised woman went back to the US shortly after the alleged gang-rape, the complaint read.”

VPC GmbH has acquired 50% controlling stake in Encotec Energy (India) Pvt. Ltd for an approximate value of Rs. 14.43 crores (€2 million). Encotec offers operation management for power plants, supply of photovoltaic systems and trading of Chinese power plant spare parts.

AZB & Partners Mumbai-based partner and competition practice co-head Nisha Kaur Uberoi is likely to be joining Trilegal as an equity partner and to head its competition practice.

“Producer Allu Arvind of Geetha Arts on Thursday sought the injunction against the release of Sushant Singh Rajput starrer ‘Raabta’, which is slated to hit the screens on June 9, over copyright infringement. Arvind claims the story of ‘Raabta’ is very similar to his Telugu film ‘Magadheera’,” reported Zoom TV.

“Private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC part-exited Capital First Ltd by selling a 25% stake in the non-banking financial company (NBFC) through open market transactions on Wednesday, according to a stock exchange filing. Cloverdell Investment Ltd, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, sold the stake to marquee global and domestic investors, including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC,” reported Mint.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) is closing its transaction support group (TSG), which was set up 2013 in Mumbai to explore providing volume-focused transactional support at lower rates on work such as due diligence and other commoditised advice, with its TSG head Ami Parikh joining AZB & Partners to start a TSG there.

The President of India recently sold 10.19% of shares in HUDCO for Rs 1,209 crores ($188m) in an IPO in India and concurrent private placements outside the country (including a Rule 144A offering in the United States), as reported by The Times of India.

Mswipe Technologies Private Limited, a mobile point of sale (POS) service provider, is to acquire the offline merchant-acquisition point-of-sale (POS) vertical business of PayU Payments Private Limited, as reported by Medianama and others.

Phoenix Legal and senior counsel Ramji Srinivasan won for Arnab Goswami’s new TV news venture Republic in the Delhi high court, after the India Today Group withdrew its writ that we had first reported yesterday, which challenged Republic for allegedly violating the telecom law to gain unprecedented TV ratings (TRP).

“Domestic air-conditioning major Voltas today said it has formed an equal joint venture with Turkish company Ardutch BV to introduce the Beko brand of home appliances in the Indian market. The joint venture will have an equity capital of USD 100 million and will set up a manufacturing plant in the country, it said in a statement,” reported DNA.

IndusLaw has moved from its Noida office to Delhi, to work out of a space that can accommodate 80 people, with an area of around 9,000 sq ft.

Alpha Partners, the boutique started in 2012 in Noida by former SRGR lawyer Akshat Pande, demerged from Seth Dua Associates (SDA) on 1 April after a full year of operating as SDA’s Noida office.