Luthra & Luthra and Wadia Ghandy have advised on a minority stake acquisition in Ravi Jaipuria Corp’s Varun Beverages International by the private equity arm of Standard Chartered for Rs 250 crore ($56m).

Luthra Delhi-based partner Sundeep Dudeja and managing associate Nivedita Tiwari with associate Neha Priya led the transaction for Varun Beverages, which markets, distributes and bottles soft drink beverages and syrup mixes of PepsiCo.

Wadia Ghandy partner Ankit Majmudar represented Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited on the transaction.

The money raised would be utilised by Varun Beverages to expand PepsiCo's bottling businesses in India and overseas markets of Morocco, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Ravi Jaipuria Corp group company Devyani International had in May this year raised private equity funding from ICICI Ventures and has joint ventures with a French Dairy firm and beer manufacturer Anheuser-Busch InBev to sell Cream Bell ice cream and Budweiser and Beck’s beers, according to VCCircle.

“Standard Chartered Private Equity Ltd (SCPE) has invested over $2 billion in mid-to-late-stage companies in need of expansion capital or acquisition finance and also in management buy-outs. The PE firm has been a fairly aggressive investor in India this year, involved in large deals like buying 12 per cent stake in Redington India (a distributor of telecom and IT products) and GMR Infrastructure’s airport arm,” reported VC Circle.