AZB & Partners

Amarchand Mangaldas has reported the most M&A activity among Indian law firms this year, according to data provider mergermarket’s Q1-Q3 rankings.

AZB, Luthra, Links & Slaughters sell off Indian RBS assets to Ratnakar bank.

AZB & Partners Bangalore partner Shreya Jayasimha has resigned to start up law firm Aarna Law, reported Bar & Bench without official comment from him or the firm.

Jayasimha graduated from NLSIU Bangalore in 2000, worked in the chambers of then advocate and now Delhi high court justice S Murlidhar for a year, and in the offices of Jayaram and Jayaram for another year, setting up Jayasimha Law Chambers in 2003. He joined AZB as partner in 2008.

In 2010 AZB broke up with its Bangalore merger partner of one-and-a-half-years, Anup Shah.

Amarchand Mangaldas solidified its lead in the Indian project finance league tables ahead of Luthra & Luthra, as AZB & Partners pushed its way into the top three.

HSA Advocates advised Invest India Micro Pension Services (IIMPS) and its promoters in raising funds from German promotional bank KfW for a 30 per cent stake in IIMPS. KfW was advised by its in house legal team.

AZB & Partners partner Hardeep Sachdeva advised the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which is one of the shareholder’s in IIMPS, alongside UTI Asset Management and SEWA.

HSA partner Harvinder Singh and senior associate Sumedha Dutta acted for IIMPS, which distributes financial services to lower income groups, including savings schemes for old age.

AZB & Partners dropped off data provider Merger Market’s half-yearly (H1) M&A league table despite reporting 21 deals – the highest among India’s top ten law firms.

Amarchand Mangaldas advised State Bank of India (SBI), SBI Trustee and SBI AMC in buying Japan’s second-largest brokerage group Daiwa Security Group’s Daiwa Mutual Fund. Daiwa was advised by AZB & Partners. SBI will buy the Japanese fund for more than Rs 1.3 crore ($220,000), reports Mint.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai corporate partners Ashwath Rau and Aysswarya Murthi acted for the buyers, which will acquire Daiwa’s sponsorship, trusteeship and management.AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Alka Nalavadi and associate Rushabh Maniar acted for Daiwa Asset Management Company’s Indian and Japanese arms and Daiwa Trustee Company.

Daiwai Mutual Fund is selling out to SBI because it wants to cut costs and jobs outside Japan, and because India poses regulatory uncertainties, waning retail investor interest in equity markets, wafer-thin margins and a highly competitive environment, reported the Times of India.

Rachit Bahl, Nandita Govind and Ritika Rathi make salaried partner Delhi; Nilanjana Singh, Nandish Vyas confirmed in Mumbai.

Baring Private Equity Asia is set to take a minority stake in cement maker Lafarge India for $265m (Rs 1400 crore), with three domestic firms and two foreign law firms advising on the deal.

Lafarge was represented domestically by AZB & Partners on law and BMR & Associates on tax issues, with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advising on non-Indian laws. AZB fielded Mumbai partner Essaji Vahanvati, BMR led with partner Kalpesh Desai. Clearys’ team consisted of Paris partner Pierre-Yves Chabert and associate Charles Masson.

Baring drafted in Wadia Ghandy Bangalore partner Ankit Majmudar and Allen & Overy (A&O) Paris partner Frederic Jungels.

Baring will subscribe to 200 million Euros of shares in a Lafarge subsidiary, giving the private equity house a 14 per cent stake, according to a press release from Cleary. The deal is slated as the largest in the private equity space in India so far this year, according to the WSJ.

Seth Dua advised the Builders Association of India (BAI) in the Competition Appellate Tribunal against 11 cement companies.

Amarchand has emerged as the most aggressive Indian early recruiter hiring 36 fourth-year law students across 10 colleges.

25 Nalsarites accept jobs at six firms.

NLSIU Bangalore placed 24 out of 80 fourth year students on 20 April 2013 including 11 pre-placement offers(PPOs). Two independent offers from McKinsey & Co were made in addition to those.

A total of 21 ‘day zero’ campus offers to start work in 2014 came from law firms Luthra & Luthra (8 campus offers), Trilegal (5), Amarchand Mangaldas (4), AZB & Partners (2), and Khaitan & Co (2), according to legal website Bar & Bench, with AZB and Khaitan having recruited entirely through PPOs.

A total of 50 students who had subscribed to the college placement process. Students have also secured three London internships each with Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith Freehills. NLSIU’s RCC has not been reachable for comment by Legally India.

NLU Jodhpur’s day zero was four days before NlSIU’s on 16 April, placing 14 students.

The incumbents continued their rule in the consultancy’s 2013 ranking of law firms, while the ecosystem as a whole has widened.