L&L Partners

This week we have some exclusive news on HSA going full-steam ahead, an unreported S&R star hire (and why I think it could be one of the best-placed firms if the foreigners ever come), and a little bit of gossip on what Luthra has been up to the last few years.

Luthra & Luthra will open an office in Hyderabad with local Tatva Legal partner Durga Bose Gandham, according to three sources with knowledge of the development.

Both sides of the now divided Amarchand Mangaldas family empire have considerably increased their recruitments for 2017 from top law schools, many top firms have filled up their quota from recruits from top law schools already.

NLSIU Bangalore’s 2017-graduating batch placed 33 out of 53 participating recruitment coordination committee (RCC) members, out of a total batch of 81, on 2 April.

AZB & Partners has poached Luthra & Luthra M&A and corporate Delhi partner Aparna Mittal

A string of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ (CAM) senior and principal associates have left in recent months, following the hiring spree by the firm following its split with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.

AZB & Partners overtook Khaitan & Co, and the split firms of Amarchand Mangaldas, on data provider Mergermarket’s M&A leader board this year, where the combined deal value of the Amarchand Mangaldas firms would have led the value rankings by a margin of $4bn.

Mega deal sees five law firms bring investment home.

Khaitan & Co advised computer security software company Quick Heal Technologies on its $38.5m (Rs 250 crore) Initial Public Offering of fresh issue of equity shares and and an offer for sale of 6,814,736 equity shares by existing shareholders, consisting of Kailash Sahebrao Katkar, Sanjay Sahebrao Katkar, Sequoia Capital India Investment Holdings III, and Sequoia Capital India Investments III

The investors were advised by _Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas _partner Arjun Lall. Luthra & Luthra Mumbai partner Manan Lahoty acted for the book running lead managers which were also advised by Sidley Austin Singapore partner Prabhat K Mehta.

Khaitan Mumbai executive director Sudhir Bassi, partner Abhimanyu Bhattacharya, principal associates Thomas George and Ashwinee Oturkar, associates Oishik Bagchi, Abir Sarkar and Manasi Gandhi acted for Quick Heal.

The company has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) reported on 29 September and ICICI Securities, Jefferies India and JPMorgan India are the book running lead managers to the issue reported Times.

Themis Partners advised Sequioa on its $34m (Rs 220.39 crore) co-infusion in ethnic handicrafts website Craftsvilla. The other investors in this round were Lightspeed Venture Partners advised by Luthra & Luthra, Global Founders Capital advised by Tamara Thompson , Nexus and Apolleto which was advised by US based firms Tamara Thompson and DST Global services.

Themis principal associate Ashwani Verma, senior associate Dheeraj Khanna and associates Rayan Azmi and Abhishek Dwivedi acted for Sequoia.

Luthra partners Deepak Joyce and Shinoj Koshy with managing associate Neha Sinha and associate Akansha Dalal advised Lightspeed.

Earlier this year Craftsvilla had rasied $1.5m from Lightspeed and Nexus, as reported by Medianama.

Luthra & Luthra has promoted six managing associates to partner level

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) advised the Dodsal group on the sale of its Pizza Hut franchise rights to another Pizza Hut franchise owner in India Sapphire Foods India which was advised by Luthra & Luthra.

SAM managing partner Pallavi Shroff assisted by senior counsel Soli Cooper, partner Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, principal associate Divi Dutta and associate Sumi Saikia acted for the Dodsal group which owned the rights to operate South West India’s 81 Pizza Hut outlets in eight states.

Luthra Mumbai partner Bikash Jhawar and associates Nipun Vaid and Rohan Shah acted for Sapphire which, after this deal, became one of the largest owners of the Pizza Hut franchise in India.

Sapphire acquired Dodsal Hospitality from Dodsal Lifestyle Mauritius and its other affiliates, according to SAM’s press release.

Former Luthra & Luthra Delhi litigation partner Ashish Prasad is now a partner in Economic Laws Practice’ Delhi disputes practice, according to a press release from the firm.

Prasad, who was poached by ELP from Luthra, is the sixth partner in ELP’s Delhi office, after counting associate partners as well, according to ELP’s emailed announcement confirming his joining the firm.

He is a 2003-graduate alumnus of Delhi University’s law school and also had a stint at Lall & Sethi before Luthra and ELP.

His expertise includes commercial litigation, intellectual property, contracts, government and regulatory work in telecom, infrastructure, FMCG, pharma, information technology, media, foreign investments and the defence sector, according to ELP’s press release.

Luthra & Luthra is acting for fast-growing RBL Bank of 183 branches, formerly called Ratnakar Bank, which aims to raise Rs 1,100 crore ($173m) via initial public offering (IPO), with AZB & Partners and Dorsey & Whitney acting for the bankers, led by Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.

AZB Mumbai partner Varoon Chandra with senior associate Lionel D’Almeida acted for the lead managers. Dorsey Hong Kong partners John Chrisman and Kenneth Kwok advised on international laws.

Luthra & Luthra Mumbai partner Manan Lahoty acted for the issuers.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai associate partner Madhur Kohli was domestic counsel for two selling shareholders, Beacon and Gpe, that together sold 13 million shares according to the Business Standard.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised the PVR cinema chain on buying for Rs 500 crore DT Cinemas from DLF Utilities, which was advised by Luthra & Luthra.

According to its press release, Shardul Amarchand partners Akila Agrawal and Sourav Kanti De Biswas acted for PVR, with senior associate Megha Bhargava, and associates Ishita Khandelwal and Rishab Basu.

They were assisted by competition law partners Shweta Shroff Chopra and Aparna Mehra, senior associate Vivek Agarwal and associate Sakshi Sejwal, guided by managing partner Pallavi S Shroff and senior advisor European and competition law, John Handoll.

Long-standing Luthra client DLF was represented by Luthra partner Samir Dudhoria with associates Ankita Kansil and Akshay Jain. ,

The deal will give PVR an additional 29 screens with 6,000 seats in eight locations in the Delhi area and Chandigarh, in addition to its existing 467 screens in 105 locations.

Luthra & Luthra Mumbai corporate partner Sudipta Routh will join Vaishali Sharma’s corporate law start-up as its first lateral partner.

Luthra & Luthra Mumbai corporate partner Sudipta Routh has resigned while litigation partner Ashish Prasad, who was promoted only three months ago, has quit for Economic Laws Practice (ELP).

Luthra & Luthra Delhi managing associate Siddharth Srivastava is joining Link Legal as a partner in banking and finance.