DLA Piper

Khaitan & Co, alongside Travers Smith, advised legal process outsourcing (LPO) company CPA Global in its acquisition by European buyout firm Cinven which was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Diwakar Agarwal has joined DLA Piper’s Middle-Eastern practice as legal director in the firm’s Dubai office to focus on India-related legal work flowing into the region.

DLA Piper has promoted 1997 NLSIU Bangalore graduate and foreign law firm veteran Biswajit Chatterjee to its partnership in Singapore.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas has lost ground in its lead over Luthra & Luthra and surprise performer AZB & Partners in the initial public offering (IPO) league tables for the 2010-11 financial year, while DLA Piper came from nowhere to top the rankings of foreign firms ahead of Dorsey & Whitney and Jones Day.

Exclusive: Against a background of slowing markets in qualified institutional placements (QIPs), Amarchand Mangaldas has retained a strong lead in Legally India’s QIP league table for the 2010-2011 fiscal despite its deal volume dropping by half, while Luthra & Luthra and Crawford Bayley scaled ahead of Khaitan & Co and AZB & Partners.

Luthra & Luthra and DLA Piper have bagged the 12,500 crore ($2.75bn) follow-on share sale of ONGC, beating five other law firms in a competitive tender, with Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi winning the mandate for the bankers.

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.

Majmudar & Co and K&L Gates have advised on e-commerce enterprise Rearden Commerce’s world-wide acquisition of Ketera Technologies, which was advised by DLA Piper and Thakker & Thakker that will cease operating at the end of this year.

DLA Piper’s new German hires and Khaitan & Co have advised photovoltaic company Gehrlicher Solar AG on its reported $5m+ joint venture with Indian green-tech company Greenforce Enviro, which was advised by Mumbai firm I&S Associates.

Discussions to allow foreign law firms to operate in India were dropped during US President Barack Obama’s state visit to India, said two US law firm partners who were part of the delegation.

DLA Piper has launched a continental European India practice by hiring Benjamin Parameswaran and Daniel Sharma from German independents Hengeler Mueller and Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek respectively.