AZB & Partners

AZB & Partners and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) acted on the biggest and greatest number of deals respectively, according to mergermarket (MM), which captured far fewer deals than both Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters databases that we had reported last week, in part due to its different deal eligibility criteria (see below).

AZB & Partners was the busiest and fastest growing law firm in India this year according to year-end rankings released separately by Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) Delhi partner Piyush Mishra, who had been hired in 2015 from Luthra & Luthra, has resigned the firm and is understood to in advanced talks to be joining AZB & Partners.

AZB & Partners Mumbai lateral partner and compliance and investigation practice head Ajay Upadhyay has moved to KPMG as a partner in its forensic practice, two years after having joined from E&Y.

“Airtel will sell a 15% stake in the DTH business to Warburg Pincus entity Lion Meadow Investment for Rs 1,623.76 crore, the telecom firm said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday. Another group company that holds 5% of Bharti Telemedia will offer its entire stake to the PE firm. The deal values Bharti Telemedia at close to Rs 11,300 crore. This may make it India’s second largest DTH player by valuation, according to industry experts,” reported The Economic Times.

KKR India Asset Finance, the realty-focused investment unit of global PE Firm KKR & Co. have invested INR 500 crores (USD 82 million) in a township project of the Bangalore-based Bhartiya City Developers Group by extending a term loan facility, as reported by Mint.

In the latest bi-annual rankings compiled by consultancy RSG India, AZB & Partners has topped the table ahead of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), which had topped the table in 2015 when still united in one firm as Amarchand Mangaldas before their break-up (see full table below).

Vodafone India, Vodafone Mobile Services and Idea Cellular have announced their proposal separately to sell their standalone telecom tower businesses to ATC Telecom Infrastructure, a majority-owned subsidiary of American Tower Corporation for about INR 7,850 crores ($1.2 billion), as reported by Mint. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and receipt of necessary regulatory approvals.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised and acted as the legal counsel for Axis Bank and was led by the private equity group of their general corporate practice team for all the legal aspects of the transaction. The transaction team was led by executive chairman Shardul Shroff, Mumbai-based regional practice head Raghubir Menon (M&A and PE, General Corporate), partners Abhishek Guha, Yogesh Chande, and senior associates Ankit Kejriwal and Anwesha Haldar, associates Kanwardeep Kapany, Gaurav Malhotra and Keegan Pavrey.

"The board of Tata Chemicals Ltd has approved the sale of its non-bulk phosphatic business to IRC Agrochemicals for Rs 375 crore," reported Mint.

“Kotak Realty Fund, a part of Kotak Investment Advisors, has invested Rs. 240 crore in an under-construction shopping mall in Chennai and Rs. 80 crore in an ongoing office project in Mumbai from its $250 million offshore fund,” reported Livemint. Both the deals have been funded through debt financing by the issue of listed, secured, non-convertible, redeemable debentures by C&J Corporate Park, a group entity of National India Bullion Refinery to Kotak Realty.

Kochhar & Co Chennai-based partner Hufriz Wadia has joined AZB & Partners as counsel in Mumbai on 16 October.