Khaitan & Co and UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) have advised on the Global Depository Receipt (GDR) issue of Indian coal-bed methane producer Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited (GEECL) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) after its listing on London’s Alternative Investments Market (AIM) earlier in 2005.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas has reclaimed the top rank in Legally India’s 2010-11 first-half-year initial public offering (IPO) league table ahead of Luthra & Luthra, with AZB & Partners winning third place after doubling its IPO mandates compared to the same period last year as Khaitan & Co dropped four ranks.

Five law firms including Amarchand & Mangaldas, Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates, Crawford Bayley & Co and Fox Mandal have been selected to pitch for the SAIL (Steel Authority of India) first phase 10 per cent share disinvestment, expecting to enrich the Exchequer by Rs 8,000 crores, reported the Economic Times.

Amarchand Mangaldas and Dorsey & Whitney have won the government’s mandate on the $1.8bn follow-on public offer (FPO) by Power Grid Corporation of India.

Latham & Watkins with S&R Associates and Shearman & Sterling with Amarchand Mangaldas’ Delhi and Mumbai office presided over the New York initial public offering (IPO) of India’s largest online travel agency MakeMyTrip, raising $70m and seeing record first-day trades.

FoxMandal Little and French international firm Gide Loyrette Nouel won the government’s mandate to take Manganese Ore (India) Ltd (MOIL) to its initial public offering (IPO) by putting in the lowest bid-price yet compared to recent disinvestments.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Delhi office and Dorsey & Whitney have won the bid on the Hindustan Copper divestment while Khaitan & Co bagged the underwriter’s mandate.

Amarchand also won the role for the underwriters on the mammoth Coal India stake sale with Ashurst as international counsel while Luthra had won the tender to advise the company.

Luthra & Luthra jointly topped Legally India’s quarterly IPO league tables for the first time alongside Amarchand Mangaldas over the first quarter of the 2010-11 financial year with five mandates each while AZB & Partners slotted into third place.

Luthra & Luthra’s capital markets practice has increased its leverage structure with the hire of its alumni Indraneel Basu Majumdar as a managing associate on “partnership track” from Clifford Chance.

Amarchand Mangaldas acted on more than half of the total number of Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) in Legally India’s QIP League Table of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co were the second-busiest followed by J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates amongst domestic firms.

International firm Jones Day bagged the maximum QIPs out of foreign law firms acting for the book running lead managers while Linklaters, Dorsey & Whitney and Clifford Chance also won mandates on a significant numbers of fundraisings.

AZB & Partners, Luthra & Luthra and Jones Day have advised power generation company Ind-Barath Power Infra on its initial public offering (IPO) of equity shares through which the company hopes to raise Rs 1153 crores.

Less than one month ago a financial daily caused a stir in the cozy Delhi capital markets world after reporting that the selection of law firms in the disinvestment of Coal India Limited and Engineers India Limited (EIL) had been discriminatory, alleging political nepotism. But as so often there is more than meets the eye.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Delhi office has promoted principal associates Prashant Gupta and Tejas Karia to its partnership, with Gupta being the firm’s first full-time capital markets partner outside of Mumbai and Bangalore, while Mumbai has made up principal associate Vandana Pai Bharucha.

Amarchand Mangaldas was the busiest IPO law firm in Legally India’s 2009-10 financial year (FY) league table by far but the newer practices Luthra & Luthra, S&R Associates, AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co have managed to keep pace in bank advisory work bagging nearly as many instructions.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai is acting for Oberoi Realty while AZB & Partners Mumbai and Shearman & Sterling Singapore are acting for the underwriters in the Rs 1,500 crore ($325m) initial public offering (IPO) of the Mumbai real estate company, according to the draft prospectus filed with t...

Record-breaking deals were inked this week to much merriment from law firms.

Wadia Ghandy will have been cheering for its client, which won the race in what is apparently the largest cash asset acquisition in Indian corporate history: Wadia’s client GTL is buying network operator Aircel’s tower business for almost $2bn. Amarchand Mangaldas is the happy advisor to Aircel but the suitor mandate could have gone to any of a number of firms, with a who’s who of telecoms majors competing for the same assets. Not bad for early January.

(A second, unrelated reason to cheer at Wadia Ghandy: the firm won the ELP Cricket Masters Cup last weekend, persevering over tournament organiser and defending champions Economic Laws Practice in a dramatic final.)

Amarchand Mangaldas has significantly expanded its lead in the qualified institutional placement (QIP) stakes, acting on eight out of 18 QIPs filed in the third quarter of 2009. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co bagged three mandates each, with J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley picking up two each.

Jones Day has promoted India capital markets of counsel Manoj Bhargava to partner in its Singapore office.

Luthra & Luthra has promoted recent London returnee Manan Lahoty to partner in its Mumbai capital markets practice.

In November Amarchand Mangaldas’ Bangalore office bagged a role in four out of six initial public offerings (IPOs), and together with one instruction from Delhi has extended its lead in the top spot of the IPO league tables over Khaitan & Co, Luthra & Luthra and AZB & Partners.