CAM, Vaish, AZB 'win' first round of Mergermarket Q1 M&A rankings

Tuesday, 5 April 2016 By Legally India Law firms

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) beat 2015’s top three firms, and flew past Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas as well, to lead Mergermarket’s M&A value rankings this quarter (Q1).

CAM was the third largest M&A dealmaker after AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co, in the 2015 annual rankings. But at the end of Q1 even Vaish Associates, in rank two, is ahead of AZB and Khaitan.

CAM did seven deals worth $3.2bn while SAM did six deals worth $479m.

Vaish with two deals worth $2.46bn and AZB with 10 deals worth $2bn are the only other law firms to have crossed the billion dollar mark in the top 14 Indian firms ranked by value.

The preview rankings had only accounted for 20 of SAM’s M&A’s while CAM had docketed 30. CAM added three more deals to its count while SAM’s final deal count sits at 31.

Khaitan’s 15 deals were the most number of deals done by any Indian firm in Q1, however they were relatively small in size and aggregating to only $934m.

By Value

Rank	House	Value (USD M)	Number of Deals
1	Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas	3200	7
2	Vaish Associates	2460	2
3	AZB & Partners	2066	10
4	Khaitan & Co	934	15
5	IndusLaw	900	2
6	J Sagar Associates	846	3
7	Nishith Desai Associates	770	3
8	Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co	479	6
9	Trilegal	388	5
10	Wadia Ghandy & Co	338	2
11	Tatva Legal	168	2
12	Verus Advocates	121	1
13	Economic Laws Practice (ELP)	117	3
14	Veritas Legal	85	4

Rank	House	Value (USD M)	Number of Deals
4	Latham & Watkins LLP	1280	1
5	Linklaters	1280	1
6	Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP	1100	2
7	Dechert LLP	948	2
10	Herbert Smith Freehills	900	1
13	Shearman & Sterling LLP	670	3
14	Allen & Overy LLP	484	2
16	Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP	460	1
17	Kirkland & Ellis LLP	460	1
20	Clifford Chance LLP	306	2
22	O’Melveny & Myers LLP	150	1
23	Greenberg Traurig LLP	134	2
26	DLA Piper	111	2
28	Jones Day	66	1
29	Covington & Burling LLP	50	1
30	Gray Plant Mooty Inc.	50	1

By Volume

Rank	House	Value (USD M)	Number of Deals
1	Khaitan & Co	934	15
2	AZB & Partners	2066	10
3	Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas	3200	7
4	Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co	479	6
5	Trilegal	388	5
6	Veritas Legal	85	4
7	J Sagar Associates	846	3
8	Nishith Desai Associates	770	3
10	Economic Laws Practice (ELP)	117	3
11	Vaish Associates	2460	2
14	IndusLaw	900	2
16	Wadia Ghandy & Co	338	2
18	Tatva Legal	168	2
21	BMR Legal	35	2
22	Bathiya Legal	0	2
29	Verus Advocates	121	1

Rank	House	Value (USD M)	Number of Deals
9	Shearman & Sterling LLP	670	3
12	Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP	1100	2
13	Dechert LLP	948	2
15	Allen & Overy LLP	484	2
17	Clifford Chance LLP	306	2
19	Greenberg Traurig LLP	134	2
20	DLA Piper	111	2
23	Latham & Watkins LLP	1280	1
24	Linklaters	1280	1
25	Herbert Smith Freehills	900	1
26	Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP	460	1
27	Kirkland & Ellis LLP	460	1
28	O’Melveny & Myers LLP	150	1
30	Jones Day	66	1

Comments

Add comment 5 Apr 2016, 16:50

+8 -0

Luthra's name not in the list? This is what happens if the importance of a competent public relations team is underestimated.

Views shared 5 Apr 2016, 16:55

+8 -11

[...] being [...] as per deal value, just shows how sellers in an M&A transaction tend to go for cheap advice as opposed to quality advice.

abxy 6 Apr 2016, 08:54

+8 -1

One must check with the counter party lawyers and both the parties involved in respect of quality of advice by a law firm. You would come to know the fact. #CheckYourFactsBeforeCommenting

Check pls 5 Apr 2016, 17:44

+0 -0

Kian the second table (by volume) is incomplete. Rank no 9, 12, 13, 15,17, 19, 20 are missing !! Pls publish the complete list in interests of fairness !

kianganz 5 Apr 2016, 20:41

That might be an issue with the numbering alone.

We are updating the story soon with the foreign firms also - those were supposed to be published in separate tables but were accidentally omitted.

Sorry for the confusion.

Ahem 6 Apr 2016, 06:17

+3 -1

Crawford Bayley $500 mio USD deal not covered in the M & A ranking

woah 8 Apr 2016, 09:17

Which one is this?

GC 5 Apr 2016, 17:58

This ranking is going to be blown away by SAM"s Blackstone - Mphasis billion Dollar deal

CEO 5 Apr 2016, 21:49

This ranking is already blown away by CAM's Ultratech - Jaypee 2.5 billion dollar deal

Ghafla 6 Apr 2016, 06:09

+0 -1

Cam's and Vaish's 2.5 billion dollar deal was signed on March 31, 2016 late night. Does this mean that CAM/Vaish disclosed the deal even before it was officially announced?

MergerMarket 6 Apr 2016, 07:31

+1 -0

Mr. Ghafla,

We wish to inform you that we keep track of all advisors across jurisdictions on deals done, and when definitive agreements are signed. This is what we are very good at.

This deal was already in the public domain by end of February, 2016. Only had you been reading papers regularly would you know and please credit us with intelligence to know such things and to factor in for such tables too.

Regards,
MM

kianganz 6 Apr 2016, 07:40

For the avoidance of doubt, that's 99% probably not actually mergermarket commenting here...

Hello 6 Apr 2016, 10:24

MM that's even more surprising. You guys were aware of the Feb end MOU, yet didn't care to know to what extent CAM/Vaish was involved in drafting the MOU? Just FYI - jaypee had invited bids and among many other bidders it was awarded to Ultratech. This was what was announced in February. Both companies board approved the transaction only on March 31st as per SE disclosure. So MM...I follow SE rather than newspaper reporting.

Guest 2 6 Apr 2016, 07:28

The heading is so misleading. Why only names as per value and why not as per deal volume?? KCo has done 5 deals more than AZB and almost double of CAM and SAM, which are on number 3 and 4 respectively.

kianganz 6 Apr 2016, 07:38

+1 -1

Volume, particularly at the beginning of the year, can be a bit deceptive, as it's possible to inflate rankings with a bunch of tiny deals and most firms haven't started getting their PR machine into gear yet.

Views not required 6 Apr 2016, 09:25

+4 -0

The fact remains that whoever is trying to talk about cheap advice and quality advice is associated with the firm below the ranks in the table.. I understand your current state , which should not be ignored. have a good time working on smaller deals rather than a quality deal.

Umm 6 Apr 2016, 14:26

No D&D?

Question 8 Apr 2016, 05:11

Kian, Have TT&A, Platinum and S&R risen above this (league-table), or are we observing a disruption in the botique law firm space?

kianganz 8 Apr 2016, 05:17

Q1 is always a bit unrepresentative.

It just takes one big deal for a mid-size firm to hit the rankings, but smaller firms may only have 1 or 2 really big deals per year, so it could only hit in Q2 or Q3 or Q4, at which point their ranking will shoot up.

Smaller firms often have less strong corporate comms teams, so they may not have sent out press releases in time to make the Q1.

Commenting is closed for this article.