S&R Associates

S&R Associates and Jones Day advised the book running lead managers (LMs) Kotak Mahindra Capital and UBS Securities India on the first ever Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) in India. Indian realty major Godrej Properties’ (GPL) issued a private placement of Rs 4.9 bn ($95m) of equity shares worth Rs 575 each. GPL was advised by Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co.

17 deals and cases in brief this week, spanning M&A, a raft of financings, private equity, debt and equity capital markets and litigation.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners Delhi office advised NBFC Religare Finvest in which private equity firm NYLIM Jacob Ballas purchased a Rs 200 crore ($39.8m) stake, which was advised by S&R Associates.

Desai & Diwanji has again reclaimed its throne as the busiest M&A firm in India having acted on 33 deals in the first three quarters of the year with Khaitan & Co also laying down improved M&A figures, while AZB & Partners, Talwar Thakore Associates and S&R Associates harvested the biggest value deals, also benefitting Linklaters and Allen & Overy.

Exclusive: S&R Associates is advising Vodafone Group on its disposal of 5.5 per cent of the shares in Vodafone Essar for $640m to Piramal Healthcare, which is relying on Amarchand Mangaldas as lead adviser with Linklaters and Slaughter and May, as well as Crawford Bayley and Stephenson Harwood.

Exclusive: Clients have been most impressed with associates at S&R Associates and Vaish Associates, according to a survey from consultancy RSG India, as Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners topped a ranking of Indian best law firms.

In the last year Indian law firms also grew lawyer headcounts by an average of 20 per cent while partner numbers only increased by 5 per cent.

Exclusive: R&A Legal, S&R Associates, Latham & Watkins, Spanish firm Uria Menendez and India Law Services have advised on the internal restructuring of Spanish infrastructure company Grupo Isolux Corsan’s investments into an Indian Rs 4,518 crore ($997m) road project.

S&R Associates has landed the $9.6bn corporate takeover of long-groomed client Cairns India by UK mining giant Vedanta Resources, which was advised by AZB & Partners as Scottish firm Shepherd and Wedderburn and US firm Latham & Watkins stepped up internationally.

Latham & Watkins with S&R Associates and Shearman & Sterling with Amarchand Mangaldas' Delhi and Mumbai office presided over the New York initial public offering (IPO) of India's largest online travel agency MakeMyTrip, raising $70m and seeing record first-day trades.

AZB & Partners, S&R Associates and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have advised Dutch bank Rabobank in its divestment of 11 per cent equity in Yes Bank for around Rs 980 crore ($210m) to comply with the RBI’s (Reserve Bank of India) regulation as a prerequisite to attain a full commercial banking license in India.

Amarchand Mangaldas acted on more than half of the total number of Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) in Legally India's QIP League Table of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co were the second-busiest followed by J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates amongst domestic firms.

International firm Jones Day bagged the maximum QIPs out of foreign law firms acting for the book running lead managers while Linklaters, Dorsey & Whitney and Clifford Chance also won mandates on a significant numbers of fundraisings.

For a firm that first made its name as a capital markets boutique, the fact that that S&R Associates did not have an office in India's financial capital was always glaring.

S&R Associates is set to start up its greenfield Mumbai operations with Delhi-based co-founding partner Sandip Bhagat relocating full-time to the Mumbai to service existing clients and to build a full-service practice.

Less than one month ago a financial daily caused a stir in the cozy Delhi capital markets world after reporting that the selection of law firms in the disinvestment of Coal India Limited and Engineers India Limited (EIL) had been discriminatory, alleging political nepotism. But as so often there is more than meets the eye.

Amarchand Mangaldas was the busiest IPO law firm in Legally India's 2009-10 financial year (FY) league table by far but the newer practices Luthra & Luthra, S&R Associates, AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co have managed to keep pace in bank advisory work bagging nearly as many instructions.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Crawford Bayley and Luthra & Luthra, and young firms Axon Partners LLP, Link Legal and S&R Associates, are bidding for the role of legal advisor to the government in the disinvestment of state-owned Engineers India Limited (EIL) which is set to happen through a follow-on public offer in July.

Amarchand Mangaldas has significantly expanded its lead in the qualified institutional placement (QIP) stakes, acting on eight out of 18 QIPs filed in the third quarter of 2009. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co bagged three mandates each, with J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley picking up two each.

Luthra & Luthra, AZB & Partners and S&R Associates have pushed up the IPO league tables this October, as J Sagar Associates (JSA) and capital markets specialist firm JurisPrudent Consulting Partners make their entry into the rankings.

Legally India research has revealed Amarchand Mangaldas as the top IPO dealmaker of this financial year so far, while Khaitan & Co and Luthra & Luthra are in close contest for the runner-up spot. International and domestic firms are competing in a tightly bunched mid-field of the ranking.

Amarchand Mangaldas has acted on 70 per cent of qualified institutional placements (QIPs) in the first half of this financial year, with international firms, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates and Crawford Bayley mopping up the rest.