Khaitan & Co and Majmudar & Co have advised French IT services group Atos Origin in its 100 per cent acquisition of Indian e-payments processing unit Venture Infotek Global for around $99m in order to set-up an integrated Hi-Tech Transactional Services (HTTS) company Atos Wordline in India.

Khaitan & Co and US firm Vinson & Elkins advised Reliance Industries (RIL) in its $1.7bn acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in Pennsylvania-based Atlas Energy in a joint venture for the development of 300,000-acres of natural gas deposits.

Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) and J Sagar Associates (JSA) have inked a joint venture (JV) between Reliance Broadcast Network and US TV giant CBS Studios International respectively to pave the way for the creation of three new television channels and Reliance group’s foray into the television broadcasting industry.

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.

Norton Rose has advised Australian miner Linc on its sale a $3bn coal tenement in Queensland to a subsidiary of the Adani Group, which was advised by Australian firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

AZB & Partners advised Japanese steel giant JFE that bought 14.9 per cent for $1.02bn in India’s third largest steel maker JSW, which was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas.

Start-up firm Phoenix Legal has secured the instruction for hotel operators Accor and Interglobe, which established a hotel investment fund with Pacifica Partners, which were advised by Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai and Morrison Foerster in Tokyo.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised US spice-manufacturer McCormick and Company in its acquisition of a 26 per cent stake in Keralan curry ingredient maker Eastern Condiments for $35m (Rs 162 crores), which was advised by Bangalore firm MD&T Partners with Economic Laws Practice (ELP) Mumbai representing the main selling shareholder.

According to data provider mergermarket’s latest league table, AZB & Partners was the busiest M&A law firm with 38 deals to its credit in the first half of 2010, followed by Amarchand Mangaldas and Desai & Diwanji in second and third places respectively, with a total of 14 deals each.

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.

Bharucha & Partners with Norton Rose and Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) with best friend Linklaters are advising HSBC on its takeover of the Indian retail and commercial banking business of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for a premium of Rs 444 crore ($95m) over the net asset value of the business.

AZB & Partners has completed two deals for its long-standing client International Finance Corporation (IFC), which bought a $25m share in power projects company Bhilwara Energy Limited and $5m in Applied Solar Technologies.

AZB & Partners was the busiest Indian M&A firm in the months of April and May advising on a total of seven takeovers, followed by Trilegal and Amarchand Mangaldas but foreign firms picked up by far the greatest slice of Indian M&A mega-value deals benefiting from increasing Indian outbound activity.

Amarchand Mangaldas Bangalore advised Kalanithi Maran on his Rs 740 crore purchase of Link Legal-advised low-cost carrier SpiceJet from two sellers, which were represented by AZB Mumbai and Naveen Goel Law Offices in Delhi.

Khaitan & Co has advised India’s largest utility vehicle maker in acquiring Bangalore electric car manufacturer REVA Electric Car Company, which was advised by Trilegal.

Khaitan & Co has acted opposite PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) in the sale of Blue Star’s 24 per cent-owned ventilation subsidiary to Swedish company Systemair AB.

Crawford Bayley, Luthra & Luthra and Baker & McKenzie and Stephenson Harwood have advised on the $3.7bn takeover of Piramal Healthcare by US pharma major Abbott Laboratories.

Amarchand Mangaldas is advising ICICI Bank on its takeover of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), whose promoter Pravin Kumar Tayal is represented by Paras Kuhad Associates, in a stock deal that envisages a share exchange ratio of 25 ICICI shares for 118 BoR shares.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Trilegal have advised Godrej Consumer on its buy-out of Sara Lee Corporation’s stake in the companies’ Indian joint venture (JV) for €185m ($234m).

Dewey & LeBoeuf and Linklaters have respectively advised India’s largest mining company Vedanta Resources in its agreement to acquire zinc assets from mining giant Anglo American for $1.34bn in order to make it the world’s largest zinc producer and to create a sizeable presence in Europe and Africa.