AZB & Partners Delhi office, following Mumbai’s promotion of a total of seven in the last two months, has also promoted seven of its lawyers to partner rank.

AZB & Partners Mumbai has promoted a seventh - Sonali Mathur - to its partnership, following an announcement last month of six promotions.

Desai & Diwanji litigation partner Anoj Menon and his team of at least two senior associates, Dhanyashree Shah Jadeja and Shreevardhini Parchure, will be joining AZB & Partners.

AZB & Partners has promoted the following six lawyers to partner in its Mumbai partnership:

According to several sources, S&R Associates partner Rajat Sethi and UK firm Slaughter and May partner Susannah Macknay have been advising Vodafone on its long-awaited Rs 80,000 crore ($12.2bn) merger with Idea, which was formally announced today.

Bharti Airtel is buying the Indian telecoms assets of Norwegian telecoms major Telenor in a deal that’s estimated at Rs 6,800 to Rs 7,000 crore, including debts of Rs 1,500 crore, according to Moneycontrol.

“Private equity (PE) firm Warburg Pincus said in a statement that it has bought a 14% stake in PVR Ltd, India�s largest multiplex chain, for Rs820 crore through an open market transaction.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has hired AZB & Partners’ Mumbai HR head Kiran Patheja for its HR function, as head of talent acquisition, reported Bar & Bench.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has acted on $40.4bn worth of mergers and acquisition in the 2016 calendar year, according to researcher mergermarket, with AZB & Partners having recorded $30.1bn of M&A deals in the same period.

News Corp-backed real estate portal PropTiger said on Tuesday that Mumbai-based Housing.com will merge with it in an all stock deal, and that it will receive $50 million in fresh funds from News Corp.’s REA Group Ltd and $5 million from SoftBank Group.

“IDFC Bank has signed a share purchase agreement with Grama Vidiyal Micro Finance (GVMFL) for acquisition of 100 percent equity share capital of GVMFL,” according to IDFC’s filing as reported by Money Control. AZB & Partners partner Srinath Dasari and senior associate Gautam Rego acted for IDFC.

PDS Legal lost 10 lawyers and four support staff in its direct tax practice after they followed former PDS partner Deepak Chopra to AZB & Partners, effective 1 December.

Asian Legal Business (ALB) magazine last month released a listing of Asia’s biggest law firms, including a round-up of the 25 largest Indian firms by total headcounts.

The seven largest law firms in India have grown their headcounts by an average of around 20% in the last one-and-a-half years. Of those, the fastest-growing such as Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Khaitan & Co, had expanded fee-earner headcounts by 45% and 35% respectively, while others such as AZB & partners’ partnership ballooned by 75%.

“In one of the largest deals in the retail real estate market in India, Dutch pension fund asset manager APG Asset Management and Virtuous Retail, the retail development arm of The Xander Group, have partnered to form a joint venture worth $450m, the companies said in a statement,” reported VC Circle.

The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) has set aside Rs 64 crores of fines ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Sanofi Pasteur India and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical, which the CCI had found cartellised the market for meningococcal vaccines, which are procured by the Government of India for vaccinating Hajj pilgrims.

“The Rs 1,112.50-crore IPO of Varun Beverages was subscribed 1.86 times at a price band of Rs 440-445. The public issue was open during October 26-28.” reported the Economic Times.

Tata Sons’ former chairman Cyrus Mistry, who was unexpectedly fired from the organisation on Monday, has reportedly decided to approach the Bombay high court challenging his dismissal, although we understand that no case has been filed yet.

Link Legal India Law Services has hired AZB & Partners senior associate Ashutosh Narang as an associate partner in its Mumbai banking and finance team.

“Fortis Healthcare has completed the acquisition of 51 per cent stake in Fortis Hospotel Ltd and also acquired compulsorily convertible preference shares issued by Escort Heart Institute and Research Centre,” reported the Economic Times.