AZB & Partners

AZB & Partners has completed two deals for its long-standing client International Finance Corporation (IFC), which bought a $25m share in power projects company Bhilwara Energy Limited and $5m in Applied Solar Technologies.

AZB & Partners, Luthra & Luthra and Jones Day have advised power generation company Ind-Barath Power Infra on its initial public offering (IPO) of equity shares through which the company hopes to raise Rs 1153 crores.

AZB & Partners was the busiest Indian M&A firm in the months of April and May advising on a total of seven takeovers, followed by Trilegal and Amarchand Mangaldas but foreign firms picked up by far the greatest slice of Indian M&A mega-value deals benefiting from increasing Indian outbound activity.

Amarchand Mangaldas Bangalore advised Kalanithi Maran on his Rs 740 crore purchase of Link Legal-advised low-cost carrier SpiceJet from two sellers, which were represented by AZB Mumbai and Naveen Goel Law Offices in Delhi.

AZB & Partners, Trilegal, Wadia Ghandy and legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Pangea3 have hiked their basic starting salary packages to as high as Rs 11.4 lakh per year, which makes AZB as the top-paying legal recruiter in Legally India's new law firm salary table.

Amarchand Mangaldas was the busiest IPO law firm in Legally India's 2009-10 financial year (FY) league table by far but the newer practices Luthra & Luthra, S&R Associates, AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co have managed to keep pace in bank advisory work bagging nearly as many instructions.

Young private equity boutique Sand Hill Counsel has closed two private equity (PE) deals in the education sector for US-based venture capital firm Foundation Capital opposite AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Wadia Ghandy.

AZB & Partners and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett have reprised their joint roles for private equity house KKR in its Rs 750 crore ($166m) investment in Amarchand Mangaldas-advised Dalmia Cement.

Universal Legal has advised two microfinance institutions in Chennai and Hyderabad on private equity capital raisings with AZB & Partners and Trilegal acting for the investor companies.  

AZB & Partners has shot to the top of the mergermarket M&A league table by acting on seven out of eight of the largest M&A deals in the first three months of 2010. Desai & Diwanji and Amarchand Mangaldas respectively came in at second and third place by number of deals done.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai office and AZB & Partners Delhi have advised on Goldman Sachs's private equity arm $115m investment in conglomerate Max India.

AZB & Partners has been instructed on Bharti Airtel's $10.7bn bid for the African business of Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain, with Herbert Smith and Linklaters scoring the international advisory mandates for the Indian company's third attempt to enter the continent.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai is acting for Oberoi Realty while AZB & Partners Mumbai and Shearman & Sterling Singapore are acting for the underwriters in the Rs 1,500 crore ($325m) initial public offering (IPO) of the Mumbai real estate company, according to the draft prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 18 January 2010.

The book-running lead managers are Kotak Mahindra, Enam Securities, JP Morgan India and Morgan Stanley India.

Amarchand, Luthra & Luthra and Khaitan & Co were leading in Legally India's Q3 2009-10 IPO rankings.

Amarchand Mangaldas has significantly expanded its lead in the qualified institutional placement (QIP) stakes, acting on eight out of 18 QIPs filed in the third quarter of 2009. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co bagged three mandates each, with J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley picking up two each.

Desai & Diwanji acted on 24 M&A deals in the 2009 calendar year, placing it at the top of data provider mergermarket's M&A league table by volume. Amarchand Mangaldas topped the table by value, having advised on M&A deals worth $6.4bn in 2009, while Khaitan & Co and AZB & Partners also gave a strong showing.

Kolkata Amarchand spin-off Argus Partners and AZB & Partners have scooped roles on the $124m private equity placement and open offer by Bain Capital in coal tar manufacturer Himadri Chemicals & Industries.

In November Amarchand Mangaldas' Bangalore office bagged a role in four out of six initial public offerings (IPOs), and together with one instruction from Delhi has extended its lead in the top spot of the IPO league tables over Khaitan & Co, Luthra & Luthra and AZB & Partners.

AZB & Partners senior associate Sunil Jain has joined J Sagar Associates (JSA) Delhi office as a partner to head and start up its direct tax practice.

Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners capital markets teams have sewn up Tata Steel's $493m (Rs 2,550 crore) convertible bond swap, marking the third joint instruction for the firms on similar deals in the past half-year.

The Ambanis yet again dominated the national headlines as the multi-billion dollar dispute between brothers Anil and Mukesh began limping through the Supreme Court.

Then, as though there was not nearly enough drama in the saga, one of the three judges discovered that his daughter was a partner at AZB Bangalore.