Argus, AZB bag Tata Steel winning bid for $633m of distressed Usha Martin steel assets, opposite Khaitan

Monday, 24 September 2018 By Legally India Corporate M&A

Tata Steel has signed a definitive agreement to buy the steel business of specialty steel and wire rope maker Usha Martin, which could be valued at Rs 4,600 crore, reported moneycontrol.

Tata Steel had reportedly beaten rival bidders Vedanta, JSW Steel and Kalyani Steels to the steel assets of the distressed Kolkata-headquartered steel maker, with returns to be used to pay off creditors in the insolvency.

Argus Partners, in what is one of its largest corporate transaction to date, has advised Tata Steel, led by managing partner Krishnava Dutt, partners Adity Chaudhury and Arka Majumdar, and associates Ashish Patel, Riya Dutta, Juhi Roy, Shraddha Rakhecha, Deeya Ray, Prithwish Roy Chowdhury, Ayushi Jain, Arhat Chhabra, Debanik Bid and Kshitija Naik.

Khaitan & Co advised Usha Martin on the transaction, with a core transaction team of partner Haigreve Khaitan, partner Anuj Shah, associate partner Supratim Chakraborty, senior associate Prithwijit Gangopadhyay and senior associate Shourya Sengupta with assistance from principal associate Kinshuk Jhunjhunwala, associate Rohan Shrivastava, associate Aritri Roy Chowdhury, associate Sumantra Bose, associate Sneh Lata and associate Harshit Anand on due diligence, execution and other aspects of the transaction. Khaitan’s associate partner Shivanshu Thaplyal, associate Apurv Sharma and associate Harshita Khurana advised on mining aspects; associate partner Nawneet Vibhaw advised on environmental laws aspects; principal associate Rishav Dutt, Debdatta Ray Chaudhury (Junior Associate) advised on litigation aspects; associate partner Sagardeep Rathi and principal associate Anisha Chand advised on the competition aspects.

Update 30 May 2019: AZB & Partners advised Tata Steel Limited led by a team of partners Samir R Gandhi, Rahul Rai, and associates Hemangini Dadwal, Gaurav Bansal, Aakarsh Narula, Nikita Agarwal, Shivam Jha and Ravi Gangal.

Comments

Guest 24 Sept 2018, 11:39

+4 -15

Congratulations Adity and team

Filtered comment 24 Sept 2018, 12:20

+18 -10

Kudos to both law firms (unlike the other top tier law firms) to give credit to each lawyer working on the transaction. Speaks volumes about their professionalism and their attitude wrt to the junior members of the transaction. Certainly a lesson for other tier 1 firms.

Alias 24 Sept 2018, 14:23

+16 -12

Is there anybody in Argus who did not work on this deal?

Anybody 24 Sept 2018, 17:31

+10 -0

Why don't you visit http://www.argus-p.com and check for yourself?

Alias 25 Sept 2018, 02:12

+9 -3

Thanks. Checked and looks like I was mostly right.

Not a guest 25 Sept 2018, 07:03

+1 -0

Clearly shows how 'vella' a lawyer you are, Dude!! Get some life or possibly get involved in a massive transaction like this.

Insider 25 Sept 2018, 08:36

+2 -0

Yes barring the office boys and other people running errands:)

Insider Trading 25 Sept 2018, 09:12

You meant 13 other Partners of the Firm were running errands?

Guest 24 Sept 2018, 18:46

+3 -1

Great to see a big deal out of Kolkata!

Bhootnath 25 Sept 2018, 11:54

+6 -1

Supratim is the biggest lawyer in KCO Kolkata. He is regularly advising Google, Adobe, Apple and the biggest technology giants in the world. He is clearly the best data privacy lawyer in the in India.

Observer 25 Sept 2018, 13:14

+6 -2

You must be writing in a hurry to impress him, that's why the typo.

YUGE 25 Sept 2018, 22:30

+0 -0

The best, beautiful and YUGE !!!

Guest 25 Sept 2018, 16:13

Why Argus' associates are not in blue highlight but Khaitan's are?

Hostwala Guest 27 Sept 2018, 07:30

+8 -0

They aren't blue blooded enough. Muggles.

Half-Blood Prince 27 Sept 2018, 08:32

+2 -1

Some are Squibs at least.

Random 25 Sept 2018, 19:42

+12 -1

I had once worked on a transaction where Argus had the littlest role possible - they weren't even present for all the meetings or even once marked-up the documents, let alone contribute in the negotiations.

When the press release came out, it looked like Argus was the transaction counsel and the other firms had an ancillary role.

I lost a lot of respect for that firm that day. That was a terribly misleading press release.

Alias 26 Sept 2018, 03:42

Now the same 7 Argus Associates who liked comment 3.1 are going to rush in to object to the above comnment

Insider Trading 26 Sept 2018, 06:02

+1 -5

Why don't you point out the deal release and let people see how it portrayed as a deal counsel with minimal role?

Q 27 Sept 2018, 04:01

+0 -2

Which deal? Do reveal. Otherwise this just seems like a random comment.

God of Small Things 26 Sept 2018, 05:47

+6 -6

Why did Khaitan have such a big team to be the seller’’s counsel? They could just have had Arindam Sarkar. He is an authority on corporate and commercial laws. A go to guy for funds, NBFC and FEMA related queries. And probably a small team with him to assist him.

Kudos to Argus for bagging a Tata mandate. At least they represented the buyer.

Kolkata Lawyer 28 Sept 2018, 09:11

+14 -9

Rishav Dutt is definitely the best person to go for whenever it comes to litigation aspect of any deal. A future star in the making!

DealsMaker 28 Sept 2018, 12:19

+34 -2

Practically all of Argus's team except the three Partners are junior members, which is why they needed to have about 14 juniors to help out with the transaction. It's cost cutting (while billing the client the market rate which the Partners pocket) mixed with driving a junior training project on a deal of this type. They have a very poor reputation as employers in the market and simply publishing everyone's name doesn't mean they're treating these poor juniors any better.

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