Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi has hired a non-Indian qualified competition law specialist as a director in its competition law practice, reports The Lawyer magazine.

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.

Luthra & Luthra has closed two project finance deals out of Delhi and Mumbai this week, acting on the Rs 1,497 crores ($325m) Gujarat road development project and the Rs 4,000 crore ($850m) syndicated term loan for Cairn India to develop oil fields.

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.

For the first time this year, Desai & Diwanji and Khaitan & Co are leading the third quarter Indian M&A rankings both by value and volume of deals, pushing Amarchand Mangaldas two places down mergermarket’s value league table compared to three months ago.

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.

Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners and Luthra & Luthra have benefited the most from the dash to hit the markets by month-end, as 16 companies filed draft initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses in the last two weeks.

Amarchand Mangaldas, J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Australian firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques have advised on the Macqaurie-SBI Infrastructure Fund, which is slated to be the biggest fund investing in the Indian infrastructure sector to date.

Amarchand Mangaldas has hired the former general counsel of private equity firm Sun Apollo as a partner for its Mumbai private equity and M&A practice.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi’s former joint chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO) Bithika Anand has joined legal market services provider Rainmaker as founding director of a new business venture.

Amarchand & Mangaldas’ former Kolkata office head is set to start up his own law firm, three months after his resignation from Amarchand.

Amarchand & Mangaldas’ former Kolkata office head is set to start up his own law firm, three months after his resignation from Amarchand.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai has completed its student hires for the year after making pre-placement offers to nine law students from NUJS Kolkata last week.

The firm’s latest offers also included its first hire of a law student who is blind.

Luthra & Luthra has made 10 pre-placement offers (PPOs) to final year law students at three national law schools. The firm has also hired six lateral associates, with the fresh batch of seven new law school graduates now starting.

Amarchand Mangaldas has acted for Wockhardt in selling 10 hospitals for Rs 909 crore ($186m) to Fortis Healthcare, which was advised by Vaish Associates in Mumbai.

India’s largest mortgage lender Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) has issued India’s first ever dual warrants and bonds instrument, which was structured by AZB & Partners, Amarchand Mangaldas and Linklaters Singapore to raise Rs 4000 crore ($822m) for the company.

A raft of law firms have picked up mandates on the four latest initial public offer (IPO) proposals to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), with Amarchand Mangaldas taking two issuer mandates, Luthra & Luthra acting for one company and Rajani Associates for the fourth.

Amarchand Mangaldas has hired a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyer as a principal associate designate in its Delhi office.

After a near-hiatus for almost one year the IPO pipeline has finally filled up this July. No company wants to be left behind by the cheap cash-for-equity gravy train, the gold rush now appears to be self-sustaining – at least for the time being.

The distribution of spoils among Indian law firms is likely to be less even-handed.

Khaitan & Co scored the Mahindra Holidays & Resorts listing in Mumbai, which netted the Mahindra Group around Rs. 275 crore over the past month and to many investors signalled a temporary end to the initial public offering (IPO) drought.