Law firms

DSK Legal Mumbai partner and co-founding member of 14 years, Raksha Kothari, has resigned.

Linklaters advised Banca Regionale Europea and 14 other Italian banks on Tech Mahindra and Mahindra & Mahindra’s buy of majority stake in Italian automotive brand Pinifarina. Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners advised the Mahindra Group entities and Pavesio and Associates advised Pinifarina’s owner Pincar.

Linklaters Italy partner Francesco Faldi, managing associate Ettore Consalvi and associate Valentina Armaroli acted for the banks: Banca Regionale Europea, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, UniCredit, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banco Popolare Società Cooperativa, UBI Leasing, Monte dei Paschi di Siena Leasing & Factoring, Banca per i Servizi Finanziari alle Imprese, Selmabipiemme Leasing, UniCredit Leasing, BNP Paribas Leasing Solution, Release, Mediocredito Italiano and Banca IM

Gianni senior partner Francesco Gianni acted for IT, Networks and Engineering solutions and BPO services provider Tech Mahindra and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Pavesio founder Carlo Pavesio acted for Pincar on the sale of its automotive and industrial design brand which will continue to remain an independent company, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, according to Linklaters’ press release.

As part of the agreement, Tech Mahindra and M&M will form a joint venture (JV), with 60 per cent stake held by Tech Mahindra. This JV will purchase 76.06 per cent stake in Pininfarina at a price of Euro 1.1 per share, followed by an open offer for all the remaining ordinary shares of Pininfarina, also at Euro 1.1 per share. A rights issue to infuse funds into Pinifarina will also be executed before the end of 2016, added the release.

The 85-year-old Pinifarina is an iconic design brand and has relationships with the best in the automobile industry including with Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Peugeot. But it has remained unprofitable for 10 of the last 11 years, with a consolidated revenue of 86.6 million Euros in 2014, reported The Hindu.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised Texmaco Rail & Engineering on purchasing 55 per cent stake in Bright Power Projects (India) from Bright Power’s promoters who were advised by Kanga & Co. __SAM Delhi M&A partner Kalpataru Tripathy, senior associates Navin Kumar and Aditya Mehra and associate Roma A Das acted for Texmaco.

Kanga Mumbai senior partner Preeti Mehta acted for Bright’s promoters.

Bright Power is now a subsidiary of Texmaco, specialising in over-head electrification solutions for the railways with over 400 executed electrification projects in India, according to SAM’s press release.

The original board approval to Texmaco was for acquisition of 76 per cent stake in Bright Power for Rs 100 crore, according to VCCircle.

Link Legal India Law Services advised Russia based investors Ru-Net on their $20m (Rs 134 crores) investment in app-based restaurant chain Faasos which was advised by BMR Legal.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) appointed former Competition Commission of India (CCI) chairman Ashok Chawla as its strategic advisory board member, effective 15 January 2016. He was also assist CAM with advocacy and policy advice.

HSA Advocates partners Navin Syiem and Avirup Nag have resigned from the firm alongside associate partner Abhishek Bhalla.

Khaitan & Co advised B9 Beverages on selling 20 per cent stake to Sequoia Capital which was advised by Themis Associates.

Khaitan Delhi associate partner GT Thomas Phillippe, principal associate Arjun Rajagopal and associate Akshaya Iyer acted for B9.

Themis Bangalore principal associate Ashwani Verma acted for Sequoia.

The Craft beer company B9 raised $6m (Rs 37 crore) in this round which included, in addition to Sequoia, Snapdeal and Zomato as investors for its handcrafted beer brand Bira91, reported Your Story.

A string of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ (CAM) senior and principal associates have left in recent months, following the hiring spree by the firm following its split with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Clifford Chance advised book runners Nomura Financial Advisory & Securities (India), Axis Capital, JP Morgan India and Edelweiss Financial Services on the Rs 1,350 crore initial public offer (IPO) of Indian pharma global giant Alkem Laboratories. Alkem was advised by Khaitan & Co.

CAM Mumbai capital markets partner Gaurav Gupte and Clifford Chance Singapore partner Rahul Guptan acted for the four global coordinators and lead managers.

Khaitan Mumbai partner Abhimany Bhattacharya, executive director Sudhir Bassi, principal associate Soumya Mohapatra and associates Aanchal Arora, Aayush Mohata, Abir Sarkar and Srikant Mantravedi acted for Alkem.

The IPO of 12,853,442 Rs 2 equity shares for cash at a price of INR 1,050 per Equity Share, through an offer for sale by the selling shareholders, aggregating to Rs 13,46.62 crore, according to CAM’s press release.

The generic drugs maker had filed its prospectus for the IPO with SEBI in August, reported Business Standard.

The original version of this story overstated the size of the IPO. We regret the error.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised Essar Oil on its $559m (Rs 3,745 crore) delisting of shares from stock exchanges.

CAM managing partner Cyril Shroff, Mumbai corporate partner Ravi Kumar and partner designate Anchal Dhir acted for Essar oil on this largest Indian delist offering in terms of its payout to investors.

The company is expected to announce a delisting price of Rs 262.8 per share due to LIC’s decision to hike the price by nearly 10 per cent, which will lead the promoters - Ruias - to pay more to investors, reported the Times of India.

Davis Polk and Wardwell capital markets counsel Ferish Patel joined Gunderson Dettmer as partner in November, to head its India and Southeast Asia practice.

AZB & Partners and Clifford Chance Hong Kong advised global investment banking major Goldman Sachs on its $66m (Rs 441 Crore) acquisition of minority stake in Indian hotel investor Samhi Hotels which was advised by Economic Laws Practice (ELP) and Jones Day. Khaitan & Co and Trilegal advised existing investors GTI Capital and IFC

AZB Mumbai partner Nilanjana Singh and senior associate Rinki Ganguly and associate Vijay Manjrekar, and Clifford Chance Hong Kong partner Neeraj Budhwani, senior associates John Koshy and Cheris Wong advised Goldman Sachs.

ELP Mumbai partners Sujjain Talwar and Darshan Upadhyay, associate partner Aakanksha Joshi and associate managers Amruta Kelkar and Kanisha Vora, and Jones Day Singapore partners Dennis Barskyand Karthik Kumar and associate Caitlyn McCarthy advised Samhi.

Khaitan Delhi partners Bharat Anand and Joyjyoti Mishra, principal associate Arjun Rajagopal and associate Nidhi Kilawala advised GTI Capital.

Trilegal Delhi partner Ravindra Bandhakavi, counsel Vaibhav Kothari and senior associate Parnika Malhotra acted for IFC

Nishith Desai Associates has opened an office in New York - its fourth office overseas and second in the US – hoping to tap the increased activity of private equity houses in that region of  the US.

NLSIU Bangalore 2007 alumnus Aprajita Dhundia made partner at Kirkland & Ellis in London

Verus Advocates and five other Delhi lawyers managed to mobilise Delhi citizens’ money to fund around 160 blankets to the city’s homeless population, this month. The initiative was led by advocate Sahil Bhalaik in collaboration with two friends from the social sector.

Jones Day has promoted NLSIU Bangalore 2003 graduate Karthik Kumar to its partnership.