Khaitan & Co

Exclusive: Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) senior practice co-heads Siddharth Shah and Bijal Ajinkya will join Khaitan & Co in Mumbai as funds and tax partners respectively in around two weeks.

M&A and financings from the last three weeks starring Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), HSA Advocates, Khaitan & Co, Talwar Thakore & Associates, and Khaitan Sud & Partners.

Khaitan & Co and Clifford Chance advised Chinese textile machinery manufacturing company Jiangsu Jinsheng in its CHF 500m or Rs 2,940 crore ($537m) buy of the textile components business of Swiss engineering company Oerlikon which was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Amarchand, AZB, Khaitan, Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates wrap up the last five deals of 2012..

Khaitan & Co, with Herbert Smith Freehills, advised the Japanese Otsuka Pharmaceutical Factory (OPF), in co-investing Rs 1050 crore ($193m) in Indian pharma company Claris Lifesciences, to form a joint venture (JV). Claris was advised by AZB & Partners. Japan’s Mitsui & Co, advised by Amarchand Mangladas, was the other investor.

This week’s instructions starring: Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co, Vaish Associates, Talwar Thakore & Associates, Desai & Diwanji and Khaitan Sud & partners, with Linklaters, Cleary Gotlieb and WongPartnership

Khaitan & Co, Amarchand Mangaldas, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Naik Naik & Co, ALMT Legal, PRA Law Offices and Vaish Associates on some of the week’s top deals.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co Mumbai counsel Mukund Puranik and senior associate Atman Desai will be joining Amarchand Mangaldas as principal associate in corporate and senior associate in the projects team respectively.

Puranik was the first to have been promoted into the new counsel alternative to partnership during Khaitan’s partner promotion round in 2011, reported legal website Bar & Bench at the time.

Puranik, who became a lawyer in around 1997 and also holds an LLM, and Desai, who has been with Khaitan for four years after completing his LLB at MSU Baroda, company secretarial qualification, and Australian LLM in 2007, were not reachable for comment.

Amarchand Mumbai partner Vandana Shroff confirmed that they would join, and added that the office had recruited at least 12 lateral hires since January.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala commented: “We wish them well in their new endeavour.”

Supporting cast: Yash Raj Films, Gruner+Jahr, MakeMytrip, DLF, Tata, Fidelity, CESC, IFC, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, Wells Fargo, Newscorp, CEAT, Dhunseri, Everstone, Mayfield, Linde, GTL, Sintex, Mahindra & Mahindra, DISA. Starring: Amarchand Mangaldas, JSA, AZB, Indus, HSA, Naik, Khaitan & Co and international talent.

Exclusive: Desai & Diwanji has acted for Eureka Forbes in its 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Khaitan & Co-advised Waterlogic, which will develop water purification products together over five years, investing $10m (Rs 54 crore).

LexCounsel with Hariani & Co and Bachubhai Munim & Co advised television news channel Zee News and its executives in its Rs 150 crore defamation cross-claim filed in the Bombay high court against congress MP and Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) owner Naveen Jindal.

Jindal was advised by Khaitan & Co in his Rs 200 crore defamation suit filed in the high court on Thursday against the news channel.

Mint profiles Khaitan & Co Kolkata partner Pradeep Kumar (Pintu) Khaitan and his son Haigreve – one of the rainmakers in the firm’s Mumbai office:

From his 13th floor office in Mumbai’s One Indiabulls Centre, the practice that 42-year-old Khaitan leads for Khaitan and Co. is very different from, but also similar to, the one that his father Pradeep Kumar Khaitan is celebrated for. Pradeep Khaitan, based in Kolkata, is also a senior partner in the 101-year-old firm.

Many of India’s hoary business groups trace their origin back to Kolkata, and the city’s blue-blooded Marwaris are extremely particular about whom they deal with. If Mumbai’s business groups placed their trust through the 1990s and 2000s (and continue to do so, in some cases) in the famed 3Ks (Hemandra Kothari, Nimesh Kampani and Uday Kotak), then Kolkata’s business houses placed theirs in another K, “Pintu”, or Pradeep Kumar Khaitan.

Plus article delves into a few more of the Khaitan’s dealmaking connections and abilities. [Mint]

The latest deals in one place: Khaitan for Kingfisher, Heidelberg, Hutchison Whampoa | AMSS for Mitsui, Schneider, Alstom, Siemens, RTL, IDFC | Siemens: AMSS-Jones Day & more.

When miners, car importers, cricket team owning media houses and tobacco producers marched to the referees, the advisors won. Here’s presenting firsts in CCI orders, the post-Bhatia International field, errant Deccan Chargers’ owners and more…

Economic Times looks at law firm equities and reports: Khaitan & Co, the firm of 58 partners, 300 lawyers and 101 years, retains 15 to 25 per cent of equity with the family, while at Amarchand Mangaldas (20 equity partners, 50 salaried partners, 555 lawyers, 95 years old) around 75 per cent equity is with the Shroff family, with mother Bharti Shroff holding lifetime equity, and the veto vote resting with the family.

Jyoti Sagar at JSA and Rajiv Luthra at Luthra & Luthra are the only Sagar and Luthra, respectively, at their firms. Sagar with Mumbai senior partner Berjis Desai holds under 13 per cent of equity in the 20-strong equity partnership of the 21-year-old firm. And while family is barred from joining JSA, strict observance of the rule resulting in retainers quitting if wanting to marry each other, at Luthra the bar to family is only in terms of automatic entry.

Speculation for AZB apparently goes that founding partner Zia Mody, amongst the 17 equity partners at the firm, holds 90 per cent of the firm’s equity, but she denies the rumours [ET]

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co Bangalore partner Anindita Phukan has set up a new office for Hyderabad-headquartered, four-year-old firm Tempus Law Associates, which opened a Pune office earlier this year.

JSA, HSA, Khaitan, Dua and Amarchand eat, pray, love Sushi, drugs, classifieds and the markets...

Khaitan & Co and Baker & McKenzie again advised leading global injectable generic drugs maker Hospira and its Indian subsidiary Hospira Healthcare India (HHI) in its Rs 1100 crore ($200m) acquisition of Chennai-based global pharma major Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals’ penicillin and penem making facility and research & development business. Orchid was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas and Latham & Watkins.