Kavitha Vijay

Kavitha Vijay, Senior Partner of Chugh Universal Legal, heads the Firm’s Chennai office and has been with the Chennai office since its inception, spearheading the growth of the Chennai office from start to the large multi-disciplinary team of reputation and ranking that it is in Chennai.

Equipped with varied experience across diverse sectors, her focus is mergers, acquisitions, private equity investments and joint ventures. She also advises on corporate and regulatory requirements, infrastructure, real estate and financial services, –fintech, agritech. She is known for her ability to close any transaction through a combination of innovative strategy, her expertise in negotiation and robust implementation.

She has been a deal maker on a number of the notable private equity and M&A transactions of the Firm and represents some of the most renowned business houses in India. Kavitha also works with HNIs and family groups on the allocation of interest rights, responsibilities, succession issues and estate management. 

She is an independent and External member of Internal Committee established by several leading companies in accordance with Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and has initiated several activities in furtherance of corporate social responsibilities through a combination of aiding communities and pro-bono work.

Ms. Kavitha and her contribution has been showcased in several platforms and she has been highly ranked by law firm ranking agencies in the private equity and M&A sectors.

Key transactions:

1. Advised Sak Industries for its acquisition of Jowitt & Rodgers Company.
2. Advised Incofin India Progress Fund for its investment in Mufin Green Finance Limited. 
3. Advised Apollo Sindoori Hotels Limited in its acquisition of Shares from Edgenta Facilities. 
4. Advised Incofin India Progress Fund for its investment in Sahyadri Farms Post Harvest Care Limited.
5. Represented Assam Hospitals, a subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited in its acquisition of Excelcare Hospitals through a mix of primary and secondary transaction;
6. Assisted Varthana Finance Private Limited in its fund raise from (a) Blue Haven Global Ltd; (b) Graffiti Investments; and additional funds from (a)Turquoise Investments Limited; Link Investment Trust (through its trustee); (b) Kaizen Private Equity II Pte. Ltd and (c) LGT Capital Invest Mauritius PCC with Cell E/ VP;
7. CUL assisted MM Forgings Limited in its acquisition of Cafoma Autoparts Pvt. Ltd.;
8. CUL acted as legal counsel for Incofin India Progress Fund in its investment in Retranz Infolabs Private Limited;
9. CUL acted as legal counsel for Incofin India Progress Fund in its investment in Namdev Finvest;
10. CUL represented Zephyr Peacock India Growth Fund in its seed round investment in Aqgromalin Farmtech Services Private Limited;
11. CUL assisted three European impact investors in investing $10 million into light microfinance;
12. CUL acted as the legal counsel for Tamil Nadu Shelter Fund (managed by Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation Ltd. In its debt funding in Vijay Raja Homes Private Limited;
13. CUL assisted Mossbrae Solutions Private Limited (formerly known as Meitrail Financial Services Private Limited) in its Series Seed 1 round funding from Elevation Capital VI Limited, Accion Africa-Asia Investment Company and Accion Venture Lab, LP;
14. CUL assisted Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited in its investment in Janani.ai;
15. CUL assisted Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited in its investment in Impact Guru Technology Ventures Private Limited;
16. CUL assisted Wavelength Enterprises Limited acquired majority stake in Vanamali Organics Private Limited.
17. CUL assisted Bachi Group, a forerunner in the manufacture & export of leather products to leading labels in Europe, in a majority stake sale to TATA International;
18. CUL assisted Novateur Electrical and Digital Systems Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Legrand Group of the uninterrupted power supply business division of Swelect Energy Systems Limited (formerly known as Numeric Power Systems Limited);
19. CUL assisted Aster DM Healthcare Private Limited, a company having operations in India and GCC, in its fund raise from Olympus Capital Asia Investments Limited (both primary and secondary purchase from Indian Value Fund III A).
20. Represented PETTELAAR EFFECTENBEWAARBEDRIJF N.V., an impact investor in its investment in Visage holdings and Finance Private Limited (Kinnara).

Non-transaction-based work: 

1. Invited by MCCI for their Womens Day Celebration with a fireside chat with Preethi Srinivasan (Soulfree) 2025
2. Instrumental in starting the Firm’s Microfinance Practice;
3. Worked with large corporate houses on multitude of contracts;
4. Working with family houses in structuring succession planning;
5. Invited by Ernst & Young for a talk on Women in Workplace;
6. Listed as “The 10 Powerful Women Lawyers in 2018” by Insights Success Magazine;
7. Listed in CEO Magazine – Completing the Deal in 2018; and
8. Listed as “Leaders in Law” for M&A in 2017.

Practice areas:

1. Private Equity 
2. Mergers & Acquisitions
3. Joint Venture and Venture Capital 
4. General Corporate and Commercial 
5. Real Estate
6. Infrastructure
7. Private Clients 
8. Microfinance
9. E-Commerce/Fintech/ Start-ups practice/Technology;
10. Banking/Finance, Capital Markets & Securities Laws; and
11. Energy (Renewable & Conventional).

Key clients:

1. AVT Group;
2. Apollo Group;
3. Swelect formerly Numeric Powerhouse Limited;
4. Zephyr Peacock;
5. Chemplast Sanmar;
6. TNIF;
7. Congruent;
8. Saksoft Group of Companies
9. Incofin;
10. MM Forgings;
11. UDS;
12. IFCI Financial Services Limited;
13. Latent View Analytics

Memberships: 

1. The Indus Entrepreneurs, Chennai Chapter (Charter Member), 
2. The Rotary Club 
3. Member at the Women’s Leadership Network, 
4. CII, Chennai Chapter
5. Independent and External member of Internal Committee established by several leading companies in accordance with Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
6. FICCI Flo – Chennai Chapter 

Trusteeships: She is a trustee in “The Great Goals Trust” which is involved with implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility related activities for corporate organizations.

Committee member: Independent and External member of Internal Committee established by several leading companies in accordance with Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

Directorships: 

S. No. Name of the Company Designation Name of the Committee Position held
4 AVT Natural Products Limited Independent Director Audit Committee Member
5 AVT Natural Products Limited Risk Management Committee Member
6 AV Thomas and Co. Ltd. Independent Director Audit Committee Member
7 AV Thomas and Co. Ltd. Nomination and Remuneration Committee Member
8 Neelamalai Agro Industries Limited Independent Director Audit Committee Member
9 Metacomp Technologies Private Limited Additional Director - -
10 Simeio Development Center Private Limited Director - -
11 Abhinava Rizel Private Limited Director - -

Kavitha has been very active in growing the Chennai’s office recognition in the PE and M&A space and has been engaged in some very notable transactions undertaken by the Firm, ranging across sectors from infrastructure, healthcare, IT &ITES, manufacture, banking and finance, insurance, education, etc. In the recent years, she has also handled many real estate matters, whether as a part of family settlements, succession planning, real estate diligences in M&A transactions, real estate specific transactions, with her involvement ranging from structuring advice to completion of the transactions ranging from land aggregation deals, leases, sale, joint development, mortgage matters and settlements. She has also been instrumental in setting up the Firm’s infrastructure practice and has been involved in many renewable power projects, ranging from negotiating with third parties on the power purchase and ancillary agreements and advisory services pertaining to the prevalent regulations.

Accolades: 

Flo Chennai under Outstanding      Professional Category – 2024-2025 
Ranked by Legal Era as Leading Lawyer in Private Equity – 2024-2025
Ranked by IFLR1000 as Highly Regarded Practitioner in M&A and PE – 2024 
Recognised by ASSOCHAM’s prestigious National Legal Excellence Awards               Committee -2023 for Notable Woman Lawyer of the Year.
Listed by Thomson Reuters ALB’s Super 50 INDIA Lawyers 2023

Listed by Equalifi for India’s Top Women in Finance 2023.

Ranked by IBLJ for the A list of top 100 Lawyers 2023-2024 and 2024-2025

Listed by “Forbes Legal Power List as – Top Individual Lawyers in India (in the above 10 years’experience segment)” for 2020 – 2021 and 2021 – 2022. 

Ranked by Asia Law as “Notable Practitioner” for Private Equity for 2021 – 2022 and 2022-2023 and 2024 

Ranked by Chambers and Partners in the Asia Pacific Corporate and M&A and PE space 2020, 2021 and 2022. (band 1)

Ranked by Chambers and Partners, Global 2022 and 2023 – band 2 

Shortlisted as a finalist for “Woman Lawyer of the year” for ALB India Law Awards 2021.

• Banking and finance
• Corporate and M&A
• General business law
• Investment funds
• Private client
• Private equity
• Regulatory

• Agriculture
• Banking
• Consumer goods and services
• Energy
• Financial services
• Food and beverage
• Healthcare
• Pharmaceutical and life sciences
• Real estate
• Technology and telecommunications
• Utilities