AZB & Partners tops League Table for Legal Advisors to Private Equity deals in 2021

SAM and CAM claim the No.2 & No.3 slots

AZB & Partners (AZB) topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Legal Advisor to Private Equity Transactions in 2021. The firm advised PE deals worth $29.8 Billion (across 179 qualifying deals) during the year. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) ($20.9 Billion across 68 deals) and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) ($20.4 Billion across 142 deals) took the second and third spots. Khaitan & Co. ($17.8 Billion across 113 deals) and IndusLaw ($11.6 Billion across 190 deals) completed the top five.

Among the larger Private Equity exit deals during 2021, AZB, SAM, and Trilegal acted as advisors to the complete exit by PE-VC investors in Billdesk (via the digital payments provider’s acquisition by Prosus-Ventures-backed PayU). SAM, CAM, Khaitan & Co., IndusLaw, J Sagar Associates, Algo Legal, Latham & Watkins, Morrison Foerster, and Shearman & Sterling acted as advisors to the partial exit by PE-VC investors via the mega IPO of Paytm.

CAM and SAM advised Walmart-owned Flipkart’s $3.6 Billion funding round led by GIC, CPPIB, and SoftBank. SAM advised Carlyle Group’s $3 Billion acquisition of IT Services firm Hexaware Technologies (via the purchase of shares held by Baring Private Equity Asia).

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 foreign firms, Latham & Watkins came on top having advising 4 deals worth $2.1 Billion. Ropes & Gray took the second spot having advised 3 deals worth $1.9 Billion. Shearman & Sterling came third advising 4 deals worth $1.8 Billion. Morrison Foerster (2 deals worth $1.41 Billion) and Kirkland & Ellis (4 deal worth $1.38 Billion) completed the top five.

Among the largest deals in the Oct-Dec quarter, post the PayTM exit, Khaitan & Co., SAM, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton advised TPG Growth and ADQ’s $1 Billion investment in Tata Motors’ EV manufacturing subsidiary. Khaitan & Co. advised RPSG Venture’s $946 million winning bid to acquire the Lucknow franchise of the IPL cricket tournament. AZB, Algo Legal, and Anoma Legal acted as advisors to fantasy sports platform Dream11’s $840 million fundraise led by Alpha Wave Global (Falcon Edge), DST Global, D1 Capital, Tiger Global, and Redbird Capital.

The full league table can be viewed online at https://www.ventureintelligence.com/leagues.php

By Deal Volume

IndusLaw topped the tables in terms of deal volume advising 190 deals during the year. AZB took the second spot with 179 deals. This was followed by Burgeon Law with 174 deals. CAM took the fourth spot with 142 deals and Khaitan & Co. completed the top five with 113 deals.

Among foreign firms, Gunderson Dettmer and Goodwin Procter topped the table in terms of deal volume advising 8 deals. Cooley LLP and Wadia Ghandy & Co. took the second spot with 5 deals each. Latham & Watkins, Shearman & Sterling, and Kirkland & Ellis took the third spot with 4 deals each.

By Industry

Among PE transactions in the IT & ITeS industry (by value), AZB ($15.9 Billion) stood first followed by SAM ($15.7 Billion). CAM ($12.7 Billion) and IndusLaw ($8.8 Billion) took the third and fourth spots respectively. Khaitan & Co. ($8.6 Billion) completed the top five. By deal volume, IndusLaw (152 deals) topped the table followed by Burgeon Law (123 deals) and AZB (84 deals).

Among the Infrastructure sector (by value), AZB topped the table advising $3.6 Billion worth of deals followed by CAM with deals worth $2.8 Billion. Khaitan & Co. took the third spot advising deals worth $2.4 Billion. Samvad Partners ($2.3 Billion) and Trilegal ($1.4 Billion) took the fourth and fifth spots respectively. In terms of deal volume, AZB topped the table with 25 deals, followed by CAM with 12 deals. Khaitan & Co. came third with 10 deals.

Under the BFSI industry, AZB topped the table (by both value and volume) advising 20 deals worth $3.1 Billion, followed by CAM with 11 deals worth $2.2 Billion. Trilegal came third with 5 deals worth $1.6 Billion, followed by J Sagar Associates with 6 deals worth $989 million.

Under the Manufacturing industry, Khaitan & Co. topped the table (by value) advising deals worth $1.8 Billion. It was followed by SAM ($1.4 Billion) and AZB ($1.3 Billion) in the second and third spots. In terms of deal volume, Khaitan & Co. and AZB took the top spot with 8 deals, followed by CAM with 6 deals.

AZB topped (by value) in the Healthcare industry advising deals worth $910 million, followed by Trilegal with deals worth $900 million. CAM took the third spot with deals worth $754 million. In terms of deal volume, CAM, Khaitan & Co., and IndusLaw topped the table with 9 deals, followed by Burgeon Law with 8 deals.

The full league table can be viewed online at https://www.ventureintelligence.com/leagues.php

To showcase your firms' transactions in the 2022 League Tables, mail Vanathi at

deals@ventureintelligence.com.

Venture Intelligence is India's longest-serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital, and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

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