The Venture Intelligence Blog

TIME FOR ACQUIHIRES TO TREND AGAIN? COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on all economies and businesses across the globe. While some of the businesses will sail through to see better times in the future, some will not. Specifically, smaller companies and startups at nascent stages may be handicapped with no funds or hope to recover. The rise in number of troubled companies may result in a lot of distress sale transactions soon. A distress sale can be structured in different ways – asset sale, share sale, slump sale, mergers or acquihire transactions. Some of the sectors have been positively affected by the prevalence of COVID-19; particularly, the ones driven by technology. The market leaders in tech sectors are in constant need for qualified and senior employees to expand their teams and launch varied products/services. So, it may be safe to say that the acquihire trend may well be back again and provide some respite to troubled companies.  An acquihire is where a company is being acquired...

Offset Obligations Under the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 The Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 (“DAP”) released by the Ministry of Defence (“MoD”) on September 30, 2020 supersedes the Defence Procurement Policy 2016 with effect from October 1, 2020. All new defence acquisitions will be governed by DAP. However, if the Request for Proposals (“RFP”) has already been issued then the vendor will be governed by the defence procurement policy under which the RFP was issued. DAP has been introduced to ensure timely acquisition of military equipment, systems and platforms as required by the armed forces in terms of performance, capabilities, and quality standards, through optimum utilization of allocated budgetary resources. Key obligations including various amendments as introduced under DAP regarding the vendor’s offset obligations and the Indian Offset Partners (“IOPs”) are discussed hereunder: Offset Threshold and Offset Obligations: The offsets would be applicable for Buy (Global...

CONSIDERING LITIGATION IN INDIA |  PART V – APPROACHING THE CORRECT JUDICIAL FORUM! Introduction This article is in continuation to the series of earlier articles which deal with various aspects to bear in mind while seeking to litigate in India. In our past articles, we have discussed multiple key facets such as; the need to anticipate and strategize a dispute well in advance, the importance of facts in a dispute scenario, etc. While the above points are important, one cannot neglect another important aspect of litigation i.e., choosing the most appropriate forum for the proceedings. This plays a critical role to determine the course, cost, duration, direction etc., of the dispute.  Furthering commercial objective While litigation in India is usually long drawn and cumbersome, choosing the correct judicial forum may allow a relatively shorter time frame for achieving the desired settlement. A party can analyze the forum which provides the fastest dispute resolution, as oppose...

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Legal Advisor to M&A Transactions for the nine months ending September 2020. CAM advised M&A deals worth $20.9 billion (across 54 qualifying deals). It was followed by AZB & Partners ($15.8 billion across 40 deals) and Davis Polk & Wardwell ($10.2 billion across 2 deals) in second and third place respectively. Trilegal ($6.5 billion across 23 deals) and Khaitan & Co. ($6.2 Billion across 40 deals) completed the top five. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on the value of PE and M&A transactions advised by Financial and Legal Advisory firms. Among the largest deals in this quarter, AZB, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised $4.5 Billion investment by Google into Reliance Jio platforms . CAM, Khaitan, Shardul ...

                                      Part I – Labour Code 2020 On September 23, 2020, the Parliament of India passed 3 (three) long awaited labour codes, namely (a) the Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020; the Code on Social Security Bill, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill, 2020. The labour codes subsequently received the Presidential assent on September 29, 2020, marking a major milestone in ushering reforms in the labour sector.   Some of the key changes/additions introduced by the Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020 are discussed in the first series (Part I) hereunder. Changes introduced through the Code on Social Security Bill, 2020 will be discussed in second series (Part II) of the Labour Code article.   Industrial Relations Code, 2020 The Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020 (“IR Code”) was first introduced in November 2019 and was t...

Morgan Stanley topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Transaction Advisor to M&A Deals for the nine months ending September 2020. Morgan Stanley advised the $10.1 billion strategic investment by Facebook and Google into Reliance Industries' telecom arm Jio platforms (among other Private Equity investments in the company). JM Financial ($3.6 billion across 4 deals) and Metta Capital ($3.41 billion across 3 deals) took the second and third spots respectively. Citi and ICICI Securities ($3.37 billion) took the fourth spot and SBI Caps ($1.5 billion across 1 deal) completed the top five. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on the value of PE and M&A transactions advised by Financial and Legal Advisory firms. Metta Capital, JM Financial, Citi, ICICI Securities, BDO India , Ernst & Young , Deloitte and PwC advised Reliance group acquisition of Future...

In a year thus far dominated by the mega investments in Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures,  AZB & Partners topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Legal Advisor to Private Equity Transactions (in Indian companies) for the nine months ending September 2020. AZB advised deals worth $14.8 billion (across 53 qualifying deals) during the period. Davis Polk & Wardwell (which advised the multiple Private Equity investments worth $12.4 billion in Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures ) and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) ($10.4 billion across 28 deals) took the second and third spot respectively. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) ($5.1 Billion across 44 deals) and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett ($3.6 Billion across 5 deals) completed the top five. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on the value of PE and M&A transactions advised by Finan...

Morgan Stanley, which was the advisor to the recent Private Equity investment s in Reliance Retail Ventures ( $2.3 billion so far ), as well the spate of investments in Reliance Jio Platforms earlier in the year ( including over $9.8 Billion from PE firms ), topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Transaction Advisor to Private Equity Transactions for the first nine months of 2020. PE firms that invested in Reliance Retail in Q3'20 include Silver Lake, KKR and General Atlantic . The homegrown Avendus - which advised deals including  the $225 million fund raise by Dream11.com from TPG Capital, Tiger Global, ChrysCapital and other investors  - claimed the second spot with $1.6 Billion (across 18 qualifying deals). Deloitte with $752 million, JP Morgan ($700 million) and KPMG ($568 million) completed the top five for the nine months ended September 2020. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involv...