Law firms

Khaitan & Co advised longstanding clients Leighton International in divesting its its stake in Oriental Pathways to target infrastructure development activities with joint venture partner Welspun, which in December of last year bought a 35 per cent stake of Leighton’s Indian unit for Rs 470 crore.

Linklaters best-friend firm Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) has promoted banking and finance managing associate Sonali Mahapatra to its partnership to take its ranks of partners back up to six.

AZB & Partners, Desai & Diwanji, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Khaitan & Co and Japanese law firm Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu have advised on Hero Investments’ acquisition of Honda Motors’s 26 per cent stake in joint venture Hero Honda Motors for $851 million.

Khaitan & Co and Chitale Law Associates have advised on a $19m private equity infusion in Mumbai-based aroma chemicals manufacturer Privi Organics by Standard Chartered.

Exclusive: Vidhii Partners has continued on its expansion drive and is set to start up a Kolkata office in May with the hire of Paras Kuhad Associates senior associate Deepti Mohan as a partner.

Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners have advised on Tata-owned Indian Hotels’ minority stake sale in subsidiary Roots Corporation to Singapore-based Omega TC Holdings for Rs 150 crore.

DSK Legal will merge with 15-lawyer Bangalore litigation and real estate firm AKS Law Associates on 1 April, hoping also to ramp up the corporate offering to South India.

Exclusive: DSK Legal and Juris Corp through senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas have filed a winding-up petition in the Bombay High Court against pharma company Wockhardt, which is represented by Majmudar & Co and senior counsel Rohit Kapadia.

AZB & Partners, Kochhar & Co, Trilegal, Zeus Law Associates, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have advised on public listed Vishal Retail’s slump sale to private equity (PE) firm TPG and the Shriram Group for Rs 70 crore.

AZB & Partners and Norton Rose’s African merger partner have advised India’s Essar Group on its majority stake take-over of Zimbabwe’s state-owned steel unit Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) for $750m.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and Japanese law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune have advised on Asia’s largest life insurance company Nippon Life Insurance Co buying $680m (Rs 3,062 crore) or 26 per cent in Reliance Insurance, marking it the largest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian insurance sector.

Exclusive: M Dhruva & Partners (MDP) has hired former J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior associate Dipali Sarvaiya Sheth as a corporate partner to edge towards full-service law firm status.

Vaish Associates Advocates and Desai & Diwanji have advised on the complete buy-out of Premier Tissues (India) Limited by Avantha Group’s Ballarpur Industries for Rs 42 crore ($9.3m).

India Law Services (ILS) and Laware Associates, which was set up in 2007 by a Nalsar Hyderabad graduate, have advised on two National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) expressway and toll road projects of nearly Rs 3,000 crore ($660m).

Shearman & Sterling, DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Salans, Linklaters and Clifford Chance have advised on Tata Steel’s sale of Teesside Cast Products’s (TCP’s) assets to Thailand’s largest steel producer Sahaviriya Steel for $469m.

Vaish Associates Advocates has advised wind turbine manufacturer Enercon for the supply of wind turbines and associated facilities worth $198m to CLP India for the development of two greenfield energy projects in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.