“International Finance Corp (IFC), the private sector investment arm of World Bank, on Thursday said it has invested $125m in Hero Future Energies, the renewable energy arm of the Hero Group, for an undisclosed equity stake.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) partner Amit Kapur was elected senior partner-to-be by JSA’s equity partners at a meeting in Chennai today.

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.

“HR Food Processing, which manufactures and markets dairy products under the brand name Osam, has raised Rs 45 crore (around $6.7m) in its Series B round of funding, it said in a statement. The round was led by Lok Capital-advised Growth Catalyst Partners. HR Food’s existing investor Aavishkaar also participated in this round,” reported VC Circle.

“Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, is investing up to Rs 205 crore in electric automotive startup Ather Energy for a 26-30% stake in one of the biggest deals in the nascent sector. Ather has received Rs 180 crore of the total investment with the rest due to be released in tranches. The deal values the three-year-old company at Rs 680 - Rs 790 crore.” reported The Economic Times.

“[Quess Corp] entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Terrier Security Services (India) (Terrier), marking its entry into the manned guarding and security solutions business. With a track record of over 27 years, Terrier is among the leading providers of manned guarding services in India. In addition, Terrier also provides training services for security personnel and electronic security solutions to clients,” reported the Financial Express.

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 acquisition is the biggest foreign acquisition ever in India and Russia’s largest outbound deal. Billionaire brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia have agreed to sell 98 per cent of Essar Group flagship firm Essar Oil to Russian oil major Rosneft and a consortium of oil trading firm Trafigura with private investment group United Capital Partners for $13 billion, making it the largest foreign direct investment in India.” reported The Hindu and others.

Legasis Partners advised deals and discounts website Nearbuy in raising Rs 15 crore ($2.25m) from non-banking financial company Blacksoil which was advised by IndusLaw.

Trilegal has hired J Sagar Associates (JSA) Delhi principal associate Gautam Shahi as a counsel to specialise in competition and litigation, reported VCCircle, relying on two unnamed sources.

“Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications Ltd (R-Com) has signed a definitive agreement to merge its wireless business with smaller rival Aircel Ltd to create India’s third largest telecom operator by users,” reported Mint.

“Credit rating firm ICRA Ltd said on Friday it has struck a deal to sell its software development arm, ICRA Techno Analytics Ltd, to IT firm Nihilent Technologies Ltd for Rs 68.75 crore ($10.3 million),” reported VCCircle.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has topped the list of 13 domestic law firms’ M&A mandates by value of deals done with $6.2bn worth of transactions, followed by AZB & Partners and Vaish Associates, with stronger performances across the board than at the same time last year.

K Law acted for Capital Float, the online lending platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in its $25m (Rs 170 crores) fundraising round led by Creation Investments, which was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA) Delhi partner Lalit Kumar along with senior associate Bharti Joshi.

Khaitan & Co advised Mumbai-based RPG Life Sciences on the Rs 25 crore ($3.7m) sale of its biotech unit to Intas Pharmaceuticals which was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA).

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has hired J Sagar Associates (JSA) securities partners Manisha Kumar and Gautam Gandotra, who were part of the team soon-to-leave JSA partner Somasekhar Sundaresan.

Advaita Legal has promoted Shailendra Singh to the principal level, which is similar to a salaried partner and the fourth rung in the firm’s eight-level fee-earner designation structure.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has promoted Manvinder Singh, Trisheet Chatterjee and Poonam Verma to its equity partnership, while partner Akshay Nagpal will joined Indigo as associate general counsel.

Khaitan & Co projects principal associate Rahul Arora and counsel Megha Arora will be joining HSA Advocates as partners, with Khaitan partner Amitabh Sharma to become the new HSA managing partner, as reported by Legally India on Tuesday.