Amarchand holds #1, Link Legal pushes Luthra to #3 in Projects, with overall dry 2012

Wednesday, 16 January 2013 By Legally India Projects

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas has held fort as project finance leader for the second consecutive year since replacing Luthra & Luthra in 2011 at the top of the top 10, according to data provided by Dealogic. 10 front-runners this year produced less than half of the total projects revenue docketed in 2011.

With a global projects revenue plummet of 6 per cent since 2011, this was the first year-on-year decline since the 17 per cent drop recorded in 2002. The global revenue stood at $382.3bn from 901 projects this year. Of this, ten top Indian law firms acted on 140 projects worth $35.8bn.

Amarchand’s 24 project finance deals amounting to $7.4bn was nearly a 54 per cent drop from the $16bn it raked in from 29 projects in 2011. Amarchand also made its way into the global top 10, sitting at number eight, while in terms of private financings and public-private partnerships, it followed global runners up Link Legal.

Luthra & Luthra had to give up the second spot this year to Link Legal, which in July had pipped 2011 frontrunner Amarchand at the top of the half-year rankings. It docketed 10 deals worth $5.2bn, the majority $4.9bn of which was aggregated from seven projects by July.

Link Legal merged with projects boutique India Law Services in December. India Law Services fell two places after five deals worth $1bn, as compared to its $4.5bn from 15 in 2011.

Two-year-old Clasis Law which had flown in for the first time into the league tables last year, moved up two places to number five in the 2012 rankings, replacing Trilegal which made its way out of the top ten. It was followed by Khaitan Sud & Partners which reported ten transactions worth $2.4bn this year – State Bank of India’s (SBI) $1.6bn financing leading the pack.

SBI was also the top global mandated arranger counting 58 projects valuing $16bn.

The projects volume from Australia grew 121 per cent to $81.9bn, overtaking India to lead national ranking in 2012.

Top 10 legal adviser ranking for India – full year 2012


Legal Adviser	Amount($m.)
Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co	7,399
Link Legal	5,213
Luthra & Luthra	3,832
SJ Law Advocates & Solicitors (India)	3,577
Clasis Law	3,433
Khaitan Sud & Partners	2,441
R & A Legal Advocates	1,619
India Law Services	1,066
Atul Sharma & Associates - ASA	992
Dhir & Dhir Associates	945
Total	35,850

Comments

Wellwisher 16 Jan 2013, 11:32

+1 -0

heartly congratulations to Tanuj Sud who is heading his firm in project finance. The way they work they are going to rock in next few years..!! All the best to his team..!!

Le 16 Jan 2013, 12:48

+0 -0

And this is "exclusive" because?

kianganz 16 Jan 2013, 12:52

+2 -0

Every year we specifically ask Dealogic to compile a list of only the Indian project finance legal advisers for us. Their general press release is for the entire Asia Pacific region...

Le 16 Jan 2013, 13:15

So if a recently established firm sends out a press release, and you focus on a deal it just completed, that would also count as "exclusive"?

kianganz 16 Jan 2013, 13:18

+3 -0

Sigh... I don't quite see how that is related. If a firm exclusively told us about a deal, or a company specifically prepares something for us to publish that provides more information than what is sent out generally, then yes, it would count as an exclusive. Please do explain which bit of this you don't like? Best wishes,
Kian

Le 16 Jan 2013, 13:22

What is there not to like? I want to build a similar website. Making notes.

kianganz 16 Jan 2013, 13:26

+5 -0

Hehe. The more the merrier - do let us know when you launch! :)

Le 16 Jan 2013, 13:34

+4 -0

For sure. Now THAT will be an exclusive. Guaranteed.

ab 16 Jan 2013, 13:41

the details and the amounts mentioned in this article are most likely flawed. pls revisit the numbers and check if you mean "billion" or "million". these numbers will put any leading conglomerate to shame. there is a mistake in this artile. definetely.

Prachishrivastava 16 Jan 2013, 14:05

To clarify, the amounts in the story refer only to the deal values and not law firm billings, if that was what was understood.

We have changed the wording a bit to convey that more clearly. Regret any confusion.

Best wishes,
Prachi

M.L.Rajora 16 Jan 2013, 18:09

We are thankful for recognizing our efforts and capabilities to figure within the list of top ten law firms in the country for project financing work.
Regards

For asa law firm
Atul Sharma
Anil Sharma
M.L. Rajora

Garima Rajora 16 Jan 2013, 18:12

heartiest congratulations to asa law firm. wish you achieve greater heights this new year.

Garima Rajora
Advocate.

Rohit 16 Jan 2013, 18:45

Congratulations to the Project Finance team of Clasis Law for completing the deals next to Amarchand'a within 2 years of its inception!

Western 16 Jan 2013, 18:53

Any undercutters in this list? Seems like some mid size firms are outshining the big ones like JSA and KCo

Where is KCO? 16 Jan 2013, 18:57

If my memory serves me correct KCO Mumbai had a very strong infra n projects practice and presence in Mumbai and was manned by a very large team comprising of 4 partners, 2 counsels, 1 associate partner, 2 principal associates, 8 senior associates and some 13 associates. It also had some very big names as its clients, but to my surprise it still does not feature in the list?

alias 17 Jan 2013, 13:11

I think KCO calls itself Khaitan Sud for PF! if not, they better do.

Low fee levels 17 Jan 2013, 07:09

+6 -0

To No 8 and others.

Project finance has become a bit of a commoditised practice in the past few years. The biggest lenders in the market are PSU Banks, who have standard templates for their documentation and do not put much stock in lenders' due diligence.

As a consequence, PF at the moment more of a pure banking practice than a projects practice. Firms with highly rated projects practices like JSA, Khaitan and Trilegal act more for project developers and this part of the practice requires greater knowledge of the regulatory scenario and project contract documentation. Plus some of the more interesting deals in the projects space have been M&A related where the projects practices play an important role in establishing deal value and risk as part of DD.

The pure PF deals at the moment have very small margins in terms of fees - this might change when international banks become more active in the projects lending market. But this does explain why there are a lot of smaller firms in the list.

Scooter 17 Jan 2013, 07:27

which world are you living in? Who says Indian banks dont do a DD, use standard documents (unless its a 50 crore loan, in which case, they dont even come to a law firm).

Foreign banks are not funding Indian projects? maybe not coming to your firm! doesnt mean they are not funding.

the fees depends on the kind of matter and the kind of firm.

Low fee levels 17 Jan 2013, 09:00

I said that they do not put much stock in it, not that they don't do one. Consequently they aren't willing to pay much for it. Projects due diligences, especially for an operational project are very time consuming. Much of the PSU lending is on a relationship basis as a result of which the underlying quality of the asset is of less concern to the PSU banks. Again, I did not say Indian banks as a whole but PSU banks. There are precious few international banks lending - SCB, HSBC, Deutsche and the ECAs mainly - I do actually do a fair amount of work for these lenders but the deal ticket sizes for these lenders tend to be smaller and that is why the firms advising them don't figure or are lower in the list, even if the fees they make off them are good. Many firms would much rather work on a smaller deal and make more money than a "multi-billion" rupee one and just about break even, wouldn't you?

Fee levels do depend on the matter and they type of firm but they also depend on the value that the client places on the legal advice. The PSU banks just do not place the same level of value on their use of legal advisors as international banks or even an ICICI would.

If you don't feel that PF matters have become somewhat commoditised for Indian banks, particularly the PSUs, then I'm sorry but you are just wrong.

hemant kumar 17 Jan 2013, 17:35

It is a success, ASA truly deserved.
It is an achievement ASA have truly earned.
I congratulate ASA on great success and wish ASA all the best its future.
Well done ASA.

hemant kumar 17 Jan 2013, 17:41

It is a success, ASA truly deserved.
It is an achievement ASA have truly earned.
I congratulate ASA on its success and wish ASA the best for its future.
Well done ASA.

leoneet kumar 17 Jan 2013, 18:03

Some are dreamers, some are talented. ASA TEAM have both. May you achieve more success ahead. Congratulations on this success.

... 18 Jan 2013, 08:25

+6 -2

Who the f*%& is ASA??

Intern - Sandhya 18 Jan 2013, 08:47

K and Co is not operating as Khaitan Sud and Partners. KSP(former KJSV, which is a spin off of K and Co)started their Project finance practice 3 years back and all these 3 years they have been in top 10 in the PF table. Mr. Tanuj Sud is heading the young team.

Obvious 18 Jan 2013, 17:49

If any firm has the name in Khaitan in it, it is presumed that the firm is a spin off of KCO. But it seems right now that besides its corporate practice, KCO is unable to maintain its reputation as a good full service law firm and its spin off firms are seeing better days in their niche practice areas. Besides its corporate practice KCO has failed to make a mark in other practice areas which can be evidenced from the dwindling down of their 30 lawyer strong infra team to some 7-8 lawyers (similar trend in cap marks and real estate).

Cry Tri 18 Jan 2013, 11:09

WOW TRILEGAL out of the league..

Commenting is closed for this article.