banking

Bajaj Finance general counsel (GC) Sapan Gupta will join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in December to spearhead a national banking practice from Mumbai.

When 28 years after its birth, India’s most-diversified financial institution that’s not a bank, Bajaj Finance, looked inward, it realised it was short of a legal team comparable to the company’s overall size and rate of diversification. The company’s legal department was understaffed: a total of six in-house lawyers present to handle the documentation and litigation arising out of a portfolio of 11 non-banking financing (NBFC) businesses.

Read how the company hired Sapan Gupta from Standard Chartered and began its facelift.

The government yesterday passed the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2011 as part of the financial reforms promised during this year’s budget in several key sectors, with a new amendment that is set to ban the Competition Commission of India (CCI) from having to approve mergers and amalgamations.

Khaitan & Co has hired its second full-time banking partner, with former Clifford Chance London and Singapore senior associate Devidas Banerji joining in Mumbai.

Khaitan & Co's recent White & Case lateral hire has advised Reliance Industries and Infotel Broadband Services on a $500m loan to finance its broadband wireless access (BWA) auction win. Linklaters and Juris Corp advised the lead lender RBS.

Bristol-headquartered TLT has bagged the advice for a syndicate of Indian banks on a $110m dollar loan to Indus Gas alongside Amarchand Mangaldas, with the regional UK firm benefiting from its niche banking pitch.