AZB & Partners
From today Indian law firms will have to get used to AZB being officially single again, Legally India can reveal.
Clifford Chance and AZB broke off their best friendship late last night, which means that global CC rivals will again be more comfortable approaching AZB with referrals.
“I don’t think there is any single international firm out there which has the ability to sustain any firm like ours [in terms of referrals],” one AZB lawyer summed up eloquently last week.
Exclusive: AZB & Partners and Clifford Chance broke off their best friend relationship yesterday night to become “good friends” after both firms saw fewer referrals than expected and legal market liberalisation became more unlikely than when they first entered into the relationship two years ago.
Exclusive: Luthra & Luthra has maintained its lead in the project finance domain as the top Indian and second-ranked law firm globally by deal volumes. Amarchand Mangaldas, S J Law Advocates, India Law Services and AZB & Partners followed up in the domestic rankings, where 163 projects worth $81.4bn were completed in India in 2010, according to data provider Dealogic.
Exclusive: AZB & Partners has topped Legally India’s 2010-2011 quarterly initial public offering (IPO) league table taking it to second place in the financial year IPO rankings to date behind Amarchand Mangaldas and overtaking Luthra & Luthra, which did not file any IPOs in the last quarter.
Exclusive: AZB & Partners and J Sagar Associates (JSA) have advised India’s sixth largest IT firm Patni Computer Systems that was bought by Apax Partners-backed iGate for $1.22bn, which drafted in Khaitan & Co and Kirkland & Ellis as legal advisers.
Lexygen and Linklaters advised a Carlyle Group-led consortium of the losing bidders, where Amarchand Mangaldas is understood to have provided the advice to the bid’s merchant banks.
AZB & Partners Bangalore office has promoted senior associate Anind Thomas to its partnership.
One-and-a-half years after merging with Anup S Shah law firm in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, AZB & Partners and Anup Shah and his firm have decided to part ways as “best friends”.
AZB & Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas have advised on a majority of M&A mandates out of 26India-related transactions in November, according to data aggregated by mergermarket.
AZB & Partners and US firms Foley Lardner and Baker & Daniels have advised on the Rs 450 crore ($100m) acquisition of US hair product company Namasté Laboratories by Dabur India’s US unit company Dermoviva Skin Essentials Inc.
After a long slumber, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fired its first warning shot across the bow of corporate India this week, allegedly slapping Kingfisher Airlines with a maximum fine of Rs 1 crore for not having played along with investigations.
Clifford Chance India head Chris Wyman has retired from the law after spending 16 months on secondment at the offices of Indian best friend AZB & Partners. Clifford Chance Singapore office head Geraint Hughes will succeed Wyman as India practice head.
The Mumbai offices of Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners have advised on the acquisition by India’s third-largest private sector bank Axis Bank of financial services businesses of Enam Securities Private Limited (Enam) for Rs 2,067 crore ($450m).
AZB & Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi have advised on the world’s largest express shipping company FedEx’s acquisition of Indian logistics services provider AFL Private Limited and its subsidiary Unifreight.
The TURF Twenty20 tournament between law firms for the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Cup has kick-started this year’s cricket frenzy as 16 teams from four pools prepare themselves to battle it out on the fields.
AZB & Partners and Economic Laws Practice (ELP) have advised in the private equity investment led by Nokia Growth Partners (NGP) and Cisco in the IT hosting service provider Netmagic Solutions resulting in a 12 per cent equity buy worth Rs 46.5 crore ($10.6m).
AZB & Partners, Indus Law, ALMT Legal and Trilegal have topped data provider Venture Intelligence’s private equity league tables for the first nine months of this year.
AZB & Partners has acted for private equity (PE) firm Matrix Partners India in its Rs 50 crore investment in New Delhi based eye-care hospital chain Centre for Sight (CFS) which was advised by SRGR Law Offices.
Attorney General of India Goolam Vahanvati was conflicted out of providing the government with a legal opinion on the Vedanta-Cairns deal because his son AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Essaji Vahanvati had worked on the deal, according to a report in the Daily Pioneer today.
Exclusive: AZB & Partners corporate and private equity partner Vaishali Sharma has joined Khaitan & Co’s Mumbai office, as AZB has stemmed a string of associate departures over recent months.
AZB & Partners has topped the mergermarket league table for the first three quarters of 2010 in a record year of M&A activity so far. The firm is followed in the rankings by Desai & Diwanji, Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and newcomer Tatva Legal according to the total number of mandates.