Law firms

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.

Former Juris Corp banking of counsel Fraser M Alexander will join Majmudar & Partners on Monday, having left on 28 January after six years with the firm.

Former Amarchand Mangaldas senior partner Harry Chawla has joined his former firm Kochhar & Co as its lead partner in Mumbai, though it is understood he will spend most of his time in Delhi.

Exclusive: SNG & Partners and SN Gupta & Co – two separate partnerships that have respectively focused on transactional work in Mumbai and litigation in Delhi – merged into one firm of five equity and 17 non-equity partners this week, having recently absorbed offices in seven new cities and started a tax practice.

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.

Exclusive: Hariani & Co Mumbai partner Siddharth Kanakia, who was heading the firm’s real estate practice for the last five years, resigned in December 2012 to join real estate developer Sheth Builders as its vice president legal in Mumbai.

Juris Corp will open an office in Chennai next week after former Wadia Ghandy associate Hufriz Wadia, who is the sister of long-time Mumbai partner Hoshedar Wadia, joined the firm as partner two weeks ago.

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.

Desai & Diwanji has promoted five associate partners to salaried partner level in the National Capital Region (NCR) following the recent loss of its office head and up to eight associates in Delhi.

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.