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.

ALMT Legal, Khaitan & Co and Crawford Bayley have grabbed the maximum number of rights issue mandates in the financial year (FY) 2010-2011.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has hired a Delhi start-up founder and ex-J Sagar Associate (JSA) partner Abhilekh Verma into its partnership in Bangalore.

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.

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: 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.

Exclusive: Seven law firms have swooped on NLSIU Bangalore campus and students earlier than ever, with 29 students due to graduate in 2012 having accepted law firm jobs.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has internally promoted four lawyers to equity partner level, while also adding three associate partners in the now finalised career rung.

Khaitan & Co, Platinum Partners and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised on a majority stake acquisition of Mumbai-based agrochemicals company Devidayal Sales by Japanese Arysta LifeScience.

Khaitan & Co and Trilegal have advised on US-based International Paper’s 53 per cent acquisition of Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills (APPM) for $247m in cash along with $62m as seller’s non-compete fee.

Khaitan & Co advised longstanding clients Leighton International in divesting its its stake in Oriental Pathways to target infrastructure development activities with joint venture partner Welspun, which in December of last year bought a 35 per cent stake of Leighton’s Indian unit for Rs 470 crore.

AZB & Partners, Desai & Diwanji, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Khaitan & Co and Japanese law firm Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu have advised on Hero Investments’ acquisition of Honda Motors’s 26 per cent stake in joint venture Hero Honda Motors for $851 million.

Khaitan & Co and Chitale Law Associates have advised on a $19m private equity infusion in Mumbai-based aroma chemicals manufacturer Privi Organics by Standard Chartered.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and Japanese law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune have advised on Asia’s largest life insurance company Nippon Life Insurance Co buying $680m (Rs 3,062 crore) or 26 per cent in Reliance Insurance, marking it the largest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian insurance sector.

Khaitan & Co’s Mumbai office celebrated International Women’s Day today with ceremonial cake cuttings, festive decorations, readings and an internal women-only email list, also allowing all female staff to leave the office at 330pm today.

Luthra & Luthra has advised Kohlapar-based Ratnakar Bank in raising Rs 720 crore ($160m) of equity funding from institutional investors and a private equity (PE) consortium including US-based Cartica Capital, which drafted in Khaitan & Co.

Khaitan & Co has advised UAE-headquartered Mashreqbank PSC on its contract with business process outsourcing (BPO) provider WNS Global’s India-based operations for outbound calling in banking services for clients in English and Arabic for an undisclosed amount.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners has topped Legally India’s 2010-2011 quarterly initial public offering (IPO) league table taking it to second place in the financial year IPO rankings to date behind Amarchand Mangaldas and overtaking Luthra & Luthra, which did not file any IPOs in the last quarter.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners and J Sagar Associates (JSA) have advised India’s sixth largest IT firm Patni Computer Systems that was bought by Apax Partners-backed iGate for $1.22bn, which drafted in Khaitan & Co and Kirkland & Ellis as legal advisers.

Lexygen and Linklaters advised a Carlyle Group-led consortium of the losing bidders, where Amarchand Mangaldas is understood to have provided the advice to the bid’s merchant banks.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai has made two partner-level hires from Thakker & Thakker, which was closed at the end of last year by its founding partner in order to follow philanthropic pursuits full-time.