AZB & Partners, Ernst & Young Top League Tables for H1’10

Venture Intelligence Report for the first half-year 2010

Chennai, India: Corporate law firm AZB & Partners has topped the Venture Intelligence India League Tables as the Most Active Legal Advisor for both Private Equity and M&A deals – advising a total of 50 transactions - in the first six months of 2010. Ernst & Young topped the League Tables as the Most Active Transaction Advisor (both PE and M&A) for the half year.

The Venture Intelligence League Tables, the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on volume of PE and M&A transactions advised by Transaction and Legal Advisory firms.

Private Equity Deals

Among PE transactions, AZB advised 25 deals worth over $1.5 billion during the period including Olympus Capital's $300 million investment in Tata Power's coal mine SPVs in Indonesia, the $217 million investment by Standard Chartered PE, KKR and New Silk Route in Coffee Day Resorts and the $175 million investment by Temasek into National Stock Exchange. Other legal advisors who advised a significant number of PE transactions during H1’10 include ALMT Legal and J Sagar Associates with 7 deals each.

Ernst & Young advised 5 PE deals worth $276 million during the period, including Bain Capital and TPG Growth's $86 million investment in Lilliput Kidswear, Warburg Pincus’ $85 million investment in Metropolis Healthcare and Actis' $78 million investment in Tata Realty and Infrastructure's road project SPV. Other transaction advisors who advised a significant number of PE deals during H1’10 include Intellecap (3), Veda Corporate Advisors (3) and Edelweiss (2).

M&A deals

Among M&A transactions, AZB advised 25 deals worth almost $13 billion during the period, including the Bharti’s acquisition of Zain’s African operations, Jindal Steel’s acquisition of Oman’s Shadeed Iron & Steel and American Tower Corp’s acquisition of Essar Telecom Infrastructure. Other legal advisors who advised a significant number of M&A transactions during H1’10 include Tatva Legal (11 deals) and Trilegal (8).

Ernst & Young advised 12 M&A deals worth almost $14 billion during the period, including GTL’s acquisition of Aircel’s tower business, Kalanidhi Maran’s bid for SpiceJet and Bharti’s acquisition of Zain’s African operations. Other transaction advisors who had advised a significant number of M&A deals during H1 ‘10 include Kotak (6 deals), Standard Chartered (5) and Deloitte (6).

The full league tables can be viewed online at http://ventureintelligence.in/league.htm

About Venture Intelligence

Venture Intelligence, a division of Chennai, India-based TSJ Media Pvt. Ltd., is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Equity and M&A transactions in India. For more information, please visit http://www.ventureintelligence.in