AZB & Partners

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) climbed up five ranks since Mergermarket’s preview of 2015’s annual rankings, to overtake Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM). CAM, according to the preview, was the third largest M&A dealmaker after AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co.

AZB & Partners and Clifford Chance Hong Kong advised global investment banking major Goldman Sachs on its $66m (Rs 441 Crore) acquisition of minority stake in Indian hotel investor Samhi Hotels which was advised by Economic Laws Practice (ELP) and Jones Day. Khaitan & Co and Trilegal advised existing investors GTI Capital and IFC

AZB Mumbai partner Nilanjana Singh and senior associate Rinki Ganguly and associate Vijay Manjrekar, and Clifford Chance Hong Kong partner Neeraj Budhwani, senior associates John Koshy and Cheris Wong advised Goldman Sachs.

ELP Mumbai partners Sujjain Talwar and Darshan Upadhyay, associate partner Aakanksha Joshi and associate managers Amruta Kelkar and Kanisha Vora, and Jones Day Singapore partners Dennis Barskyand Karthik Kumar and associate Caitlyn McCarthy advised Samhi.

Khaitan Delhi partners Bharat Anand and Joyjyoti Mishra, principal associate Arjun Rajagopal and associate Nidhi Kilawala advised GTI Capital.

Trilegal Delhi partner Ravindra Bandhakavi, counsel Vaibhav Kothari and senior associate Parnika Malhotra acted for IFC

Desai & Diwanji advised the Bector Family and Motilal Oswal Private Equity on their Rs 450 crore ($67.5m) exit from Ludhiana based food and beverage company Mrs Bectors Food Specialities, after selling their minority stake in it. Private equity firms CX Partners, advised by Platinum Partners, and Gateway Partners, advised by AZB & Partners bought the stake. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised Bectors Food.

D&D Delhi partner Rachna Jain and associates Nakul Batra and Rahul Chaddah advised the sellers on this, one of the largest packaged F&B sector private equity deals according to the firm’s press release.

Platinum Bengaluru partner Ankit Majmudar and associates Yamini Dwarakanath and Jagriti Mohata advised CX Partners.

AZB Delhi partner Sachin Mehta and Mumbai associate Vinit Nalavadi acted for Gateway Partners.

SAM Delhi partner Raghubir Menon, principal associate Gaurav Dayal and associate Aritra Roy acted for Bector Foods and its promoter Anoop Bector and his family members on the transaction.

CX and Gateway have reportedly invested Rs 450 crore in MBFSL for a 47 percent stake in the company reported Deal Street Asia.

AZB & Partners overtook Khaitan & Co, and the split firms of Amarchand Mangaldas, on data provider Mergermarket’s M&A leader board this year, where the combined deal value of the Amarchand Mangaldas firms would have led the value rankings by a margin of $4bn.

Talwar Thakore & Associates (TT&A), advised the AXA Group in the increase of its equity stake from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in its Indian life and general insurance joint ventures with the Bharti group member Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Limited and Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited, which were advised by AZB & Partners in Delhi.

The TT&A team included partner Kunal Thakore and associate Deepa Christopher, while executive chairman Vinod Dhall and associate Sonam Mathur advised on competition law aspects.

AZB’s team included partners Gautam Saha and Sachin Mehta.

AXA will invest another Rs 1,290 crore in both joint venture companies, reported Mint.

AXA is the first foreign insurer to procure all regulatory approvals (from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India and the Competition Commission of India) and complete the increase of its stake in its Indian joint ventures following the increase in the foreign investment permitted in the insurance sector.

AZB & Partners advised Singapore based infrastructure company Cube Highways & Infrastructure on its Rs 248 crores ($37.4m) buy of Madhucon Agra Jaipur Expressways (MAJEL) which was advised by Nishith Desai Associates (NDA).

AZB partner Yashwant Mathur, senior associates Esha Pruthi and Ambarish Mohanty and associates Shridha Malhotra, Devanshu Sajlan and Nitin Saluja acted for Cube.

NDA partner Rajesh Simhan advised MAJEL

Cube would operate the 57 kilometers stretch of National Highway 11, connecting the cities of Mahua and Bharatpur, on build operate transfer (BOT) basis connecting tourist corridors of Agra and Jaipur. MAJEL started operating in 2009.

International Finance Corp (IFC), a part of the World Bank group, had picked up a 20 per cent stake in Cube which is promoted by I Squared Capital. IFC had committed a $100m (Rs 6640 crore) investment in Cube, which will primarily acquire operating road assets in India, reported Mint.

AZB & Partners advised former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin and his family on their acquisition of a minority stake in ANI Technologies which runs taxi app Ola. Ola was advised by IndusLaw.

AZB Delhi partner Anil Kasturin and senior associate Jaishree Tolani acted for Sarin who, as Mint reported, is joining Ola as an independent director.

Indus declined to comment but it is understood that Noida partner Gaurav Dani led the deal for Ola.

Founded in January 2011 by two IIT Bombay alumni, Ola currently plies over 20,000 vehicles in over 100 Indian cities, is backed by investors such as DST Global, GIC, Falcon Edge Capital, SoftBank Group Corp., Tiger Global Management LLC, Steadview Capital and Accel Partners, acquired rival TaxiForSure this year in a deal worth $200m, and is being investigated for predatory pricing allegations in the Competition Commission of India, even as the Delhi high court imposed a ban on it.

Khaitan & Co advised Indian stationery maker Writefine Products on selling 32.5 per cent equity to Italian art products maker and distributor Fabbrica Italiana Lapis ed Affini (FILA). FILA was advised by AZB & Partners and Italian law firm Studio Legale Salonia Associati.

Khaitan associate partner Mehul Shah, senior associate Vivek Sriram,and associate Vidur Sinha acted for Writefine Products.

AZB Partner Alka Nalavadi acted for FILA which was increasing its shareholding in Writefine to 51 per cent from 18.5 percent.

Writefine Products, a Gujarat-based company that claims to have close to 3,000 employees, was valued at around Rs 740 crore (around $114m) in the deal, reported VCC Circle.

BMR Legal announced the induction of Kaushik Mukherjee, who was earlier a partner at J Sagar & Associates as the second partner based out of the firm’s Mumbai office.

Mega deal sees five law firms bring investment home.

AZB & Partners former Mumbai partner Kalpana Merchant, who resigned from the firm in early September, has joined P&C Legal, the Mumbai arm of Bangalore headquartered firm Poovayya & Co that was started headed by AZB alum Vishnu Jerome.

Argus Partners advised electric goods maker Crompton Greaves on its Rs 400m buyout out of joint venture (JV) CG Lucy Switchgear by JV partner W Lucy & Co. W Lucy was advised by AZB & Partners.

Argus partner Adity Chaudhury and senior associate Megha Saraf acted for Crompton Greaves.

AZB partner Nilanjana Singh acted for W Lucy.

Economic Times quoted Compton Greaves Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Laurent Demortier as saying, “We believe that W Lucy is the best potential owner for ensuring a long term future for CG-Lucy. Combining the CG Lucy Indian operations and Lucy Electric business will allow CG-Lucy to focus on developing products specifically for the Indian market and expand its offering within the MV sector”.

Nishad Nadkarni will join the Khaitan & Co Mumbai office as an associate partner in its IPR team after resigning from Legasis Partners, reported Bar and Bench.

Nadkarni graduated from Symbiosis Law School in 1999 and has worked at firms such as Singhania & Co, AZB & Partners and DSK Legal before his stint at Legasis Partners.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi corporate principal associate Soumya Kanti De Mallik has joined HSA Advocates as an associate partner on 1 October.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai-based lateral hire Abhishek Sinha, who was reportedly poached in April from Khaitan & Co where he was an associate partner, will return to Khaitan & Co as an associate partner, according to several authoritative sources.

IndusLaw advised Accel and AZB & Partners advised International Finance Corporation on their $37m (Rs 247 crore) co-funding of Healthvista alongside investors Qualcomm Asia Pacific and VenturEast which were advised in house. Healthvista runs home healthcare company Portea Medical.

Indus Bangalore partner Kartik Ganapathy, senior associate Basava Rao and associates Ramya Sridhar, Vivek BN and Mary Sebastian acted for Accel.

AZB Delhi partner Amrita Patnaik and senior associate Dushyant Bagga acted for IFC Portea raised $9m from Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and VenturEast in December 2013, according to VC Circle.

AZB & Partners advised India’s largest doctor discovery platform Practo Technologies on its over $10m buy of smaller rival Qikwell Technologies India which was advised by Nishith Desai Associates (NDA).

AZB Mumbai partners Ashwin Ramanathan and Nilanjhana Singh and senior associate Parthasarathi Jha acted for Practo.

NDA Bangalore partner Vaibhav Parikh and associates Sangeeta Rana and Shreyas Bhushan acted for Qikwell.

Practo has bought four businesses in the last five months, including Qikwell, reported Mint according to which the other acquisitions were Insta Health, product outsourcing firm Genii and FitHo.

AZB & Partners has promoted five of its lawyers to partner level after 12 months of partners leaving and joining in the Mumbai region of the firm.

Ernst & Young (EY) director of fraud investigation and dispute services Ajay Upadhyay has joined AZB & Partners in Mumbai.

AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Shuva Mandal has resigned from the firm and will join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai.