Law firms

Alpha Partners, the corporate and intellectual property boutique started up in 2012 by former SRGR Law Offices lawyer Akshat Pande with Videocon group in-houser Ankit Prakash, opened its second national office and its first outside the Delhi area, in Bangalore.

Orbit Law Services, which was started up last year by Clasis Law project finance breakaway partners Ishtiaq Ali and Damodara Rao, with PV Rao, opened its fourth national office in Chennai, after Delhi, Mumbai and Vijaywada.

Orbit associate partner Haridas Sriramulu and one associate from the firm were relocated to the Chennai office which is headed by PV Rao from Mumbai.

The firm, which was started up in September 2014, has a team of 35 lawyers including two senior partners, four partners, seven associate partners, two senior consultants, four senior associates and 16 associates, according to the press release.

Kochhar & Co advised global clinical research conglomerate the Parexel Group and its Indian group company Parexel India on buying for $100m pharma-covigilance company Quantum Solutions India, which was advised by Platinum Partners.

Kochhar senior Delhi-based partner Vijay Ravi, partner Chandrasekhar Tampi and senior associate Sumant Srivastava acted for Parexel India and the Parexel Group.

Platinum’s recent Wadia Ghandy Bangalore joinee and partner Ankit Majmudar and associate Rohan Kumar acted for Quantum and its proprietor Apurva Goswamy.

The acquisition will not significantly impact Parexel’s fiscal year 2015 revenue, reported Mint.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) partner Ameya Gokhale, who joined the firm only recently, is representing Nestle India on its judicial review of food safety watchdog FSSAI, which banned its Maggi instant noodles for allegedly containing too much lead and MSG

The CEO of Dhir & Dhir, Manju Mohotra, who had joined the firm in 2012 from Singhania & Partners, has resigned.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised the PVR cinema chain on buying for Rs 500 crore DT Cinemas from DLF Utilities, which was advised by Luthra & Luthra.

According to its press release, Shardul Amarchand partners Akila Agrawal and Sourav Kanti De Biswas acted for PVR, with senior associate Megha Bhargava, and associates Ishita Khandelwal and Rishab Basu.

They were assisted by competition law partners Shweta Shroff Chopra and Aparna Mehra, senior associate Vivek Agarwal and associate Sakshi Sejwal, guided by managing partner Pallavi S Shroff and senior advisor European and competition law, John Handoll.

Long-standing Luthra client DLF was represented by Luthra partner Samir Dudhoria with associates Ankita Kansil and Akshay Jain. ,

The deal will give PVR an additional 29 screens with 6,000 seats in eight locations in the Delhi area and Chandigarh, in addition to its existing 467 screens in 105 locations.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Covington Burling advised the world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev on its exit from a joint venture with RJ Corp, which was advised by Dua Associates.

JSA partner Upendra Nath Sharma, senior Associate Rishabh Gupta and associate Ritunjay Gupta with intermitten strategic inputs from JSA chairman and founder Jyoti Sagar acted for the Belgium-headquartered brewery, which will now operate through Crown Beers India.

Dua partner Himanshu Narayan, manager Amarta Roy and associate Shloka acted for RJ Corp.

The deal will allow Anheuser-Busch InBev, whichhas over one-fourth of the world’s market share for beer including brands such as Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Leffe and Hoegaarden, to expand in India independently through additional brand investment and capacity expansion, explained JSA in its press release.

AB InBev will exit the joint venture, paying anywhere between $100m and $150m to Ravi Jaipuria-owned RJ Corp, reported Mint.

Platinum Partners partner Nivedita Tiwari will join Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as a partner in Delhi.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) corporate and M&A principal associate Kunal Mehra will join Dua Associates as a partner, reported Bar & Bench.

Last week SAM hired senior Dua litigation partner Shiraz Patodia and two partners for its Delhi litigation team.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) has now officially promoted 15 to partner.

Dua Associates' second-largest equity holder Shiraz Patodia will join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas with her team of partners Priyanka Sharma Goswami and Anusuya Sadhu Sinha, and manager Saloni Tuteja and senior associate Amrita Sharma.

S&R Associates acted the Vodafone Group in its sale of $200m Bharti Infotel, representing around 4.2% interest in Bharti Airtel, to Bharti Enterprises, which was represented by AZB & Partners.

S&R partner Rajat Sethi and associates Tanya Aggarwal and Lakshmi Pradeep acted for Vodafone.

AZB Delhi partner Gautam Saha acted for long-standing client Bharti.

The sale was made due to a telecoms department directive restricting any group from holding stakes in more than one telecom licensee in one area, reported Reuters

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) advised Himachal Pradesh-based SBS Biotech on selling for Rs 1,651 crore its hair and scalp care businesses Kesh King and Kesh Pari to FMCG player Emami, which was advised by Khaitan & Co.

SAM partners Jatin Aneja, Anubhuti Agarwal and Dev Robinson, principal associate Siddhartha Sen and associate Madhur Chopra acted for SBS Biotech.

Khaitan partners Haigreve Khaitan and Adheesh Nargolkar, associate partner Surbhi Kejriwal, senior associate Abhishek Thanvi and executive director Dinesh Agarwal acted for Emami.

Kesh King and allied brands had a revenue of Rs 300 crore in 2014-15 and have been growing at an average of 68 per cent a year for the last three years, while Emami, which makes a first foray into the hair and scalp care business with this acquisition, had reported a 20.7 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs 486 crore for 2014-15, and a 21.8 per cent rise in revenue to Rs.2,217 crore, reported Mint.

Desai & Diwanji advised British media conglomerate Daily Mail & General Trust’s investment arm DMG Information on its Rs 19 crore ($3m) infusion in Mumbai-based commercial real company Propstack Services which was advised by Hariani & Co.

D&D partner Siddharth Mody, senior associate Ashraf Lala and associates Manav Shah and Santosh Vijay acted for DMG Information.

Hariani & Co senior associate Abhijeet Sonawane and associate Bhanudey Kanwar acted for Propstack and the existing investors.

The online real estate market has recieved significant investment recently from funds, for example, online property classifieds companies Housing.com and Commonfloor.com have collectively raised over $130m since September 2014, reported Mint.

Kochhar & Co has hired former associate director legal (South Asia) of the Carlson Rezidor Group, Sumit Phatela, as a partner in its Gurgaon office’s corporate, banking and finance practice.

Phatela was previously working with the office of general counsel of Ernst & Young India, and had been at the banking & finance team of SNG & Partners’ Delhi office for five years, according to a press release from Kochhar.

Legally India reported earlier today that Kochhar also hired Universal Legal partner Gaurav Chatterjee in Chennai.