Desai & Diwanji has advised on the most M&A mandates in the first half of the 2011 calendar year, with AZB & Partners having advised on far fewer deals than last year but still topping the mergermarket league table by value of transactions closely followed by Talwar Thakore Associates.

Managing a law firm tends to become harder rather than easier with size. Acknowledging this, in what is still a largely symbolic step albeit with potential future significance, AZB Mumbai has created a new top-level management function outside of the name partners.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners has appointed senior partner Abhijit Joshi into the newly created chief executive officer (CEO) role, overseeing strategy of the Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune offices while continuing in his client-facing duties.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Vishnu Jerome is intending to set up a new law firm after his AZB resignation takes effect from the end of this month.

Khaitan & Co represented ATM outsourcing company AGS Transact Technologies in its successful bid to raise Rs 145 crore ($32m) in private equity funds from investment firm TPG growth, which drafted in AZB Partners and Milbank Tweed.

J Sagar Associates (JSA), AZB & Partners and Japanese law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune have advised on Indian stationery maker Camlin’s majority stake buy-out by Japanese counterpart Kokuyo for Rs 186 crore.

AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Vaish Associates have advised on the private equity funding raised by ETech Aces Marketing & Consulting from Intel Capital and existing investor Info Edge. Vaish Associates’ Gurgaon office head and partner Hitender Mehta along with senior associ...

The Bangalore offices AZB & Partners and Trilegal Mumbai have advised on a $13m private equity minority stake investment by Fidelity in logistics major Transpole Logistics. Trilegal partner Amit Tambe was assisted by senior associate Kunal Chandra and associate Shruti Singh leading for Fidelity...

The Delhi and Kolkata offices of Amarchand Mangaldas and Delhi’s AZB & Partners advised on Warburg Pincus’ $140m investment in Dainik Bhaskar-owned Diligent Power.

Exclusive: Desai & Diwanji has advised German consumer goods company Henkel AG on the sale of its Indian subsidiary for a total of Rs 118 crore ($26m) to Jyothy Laboratories, which was advised by AZB & Partners.

Khaitan & Co, AZB & Partners and international firm Morrison Foerster have advised on India’s largest heat-withstanding materials manufacturer Tata Refractories’ sale of a 51 per cent stake to Japanese conglomerate Krosaki Harima for $128m.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners advised on Tata Power’s $450m (Rs 2,000 crore) hybrid bond, which is the first such issue denominated in US Dollars by an Indian corporate.

Exclusive: Nalsar Hyderabad held its first day of recruitments for the 2012 graduating batch one week after NLSIU with Luthra emerging as top recruiter followed by Amarchand, AZB, Khaitan, Trilegal and Allen & Overy.

**Breaking: Amarchand Mangaldas Bangalore, Luthra & Luthra and Clifford Chance have led on Petronas International’s $2.1bn exit of Vedanta Resources-part-owned Cairn India, according to lawyers on the deal.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co and Desai & Diwanji have topped mergermarket’s M&A league table by volume, each having recorded 11 deals in the first three months of 2011.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas has lost ground in its lead over Luthra & Luthra and surprise performer AZB & Partners in the initial public offering (IPO) league tables for the 2010-11 financial year, while DLA Piper came from nowhere to top the rankings of foreign firms ahead of Dorsey & Whitney and Jones Day.

AZB & Partners and Desai & Diwanji were drafted in on the Indian leg of the sale of Pfizer’s $2.4bn worldwide Capsugel business to global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). AZB’s Bangalore-based partner Srinath Dasari led for Pfizer. He said that as Indian counsel the firm revi...

Exclusive: Against a background of slowing markets in qualified institutional placements (QIPs), Amarchand Mangaldas has retained a strong lead in Legally India’s QIP league table for the 2010-2011 fiscal despite its deal volume dropping by half, while Luthra & Luthra and Crawford Bayley scaled ahead of Khaitan & Co and AZB & Partners.

AZB & Partners’ Mumbai and Delhi offices advised on both sides of the financial services joint venture between India’s largest private sector enterprise Reliance Industries and US investment group D E Shaw with Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling.

AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Sullivan & Cromwell have advised on Goldman Sachs’s complete acquisition of Indian asset management company Benchmark Asset for a reported Rs 130 crore to expand its foothold in the six trillion rupee Indian fund management industry.