J Sagar Associates

The firm improves its position to ‘Outstanding’ in the Construction ranking this year.  

Banking and finance  

Work highlights 

Assisted Export Development Canada on its $350 million cross-border external commercial borrowing to Idea Cellular. 

Key clients 

BNS Asia, Credit Suisse, Export Development Canada, Edelweiss, Kotak Bank, Srei Infrastructure Finance, State Bank of India, United Overseas Bank 

Capital markets 

Work highlights 

Worked with Export-Import Bank of India on its $10 billion global MTN programme. The deal, which is the bank’s first listing on London Stock Exchange’s International Securities Market, involved the quasi-sovereign issue of $1 billion 3.875% notes due 2028. 

Key clients 

Altico Capital, Export-Import Bank of India, HDFC Bank, IRB Infrastructure, State Bank of India 

Competition/antitrust 

Work highlights 

Representing ChemChina, the team successfully earned merger clearance by the Competition Commission of India for the Indian leg of the $43 billion acquisition of Syngenta. It was one of the largest deals ever worldwide in the agro-chemical industry.  

Key clients 

ACI Worldwide, ChemChina, Lonza, Nuziveedu Seeds, Emerson, Hyundai Motor, Indian Sugar Mills Association, Polaris Consulting and Services  

Construction 

Work highlights 

Advising the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the implementing agency of the Hinjawadi-to-Shivajinagar 23km rail corridor. The team is working on the design-build-finance-operate-transfer project by drafting bid documents, assisting on the bidding process and negotiating with the winning bidder. The PPP is one of the first metro projects under the national government’s new metro policy, which requires private sector participation to receive government funding.  

Key clients 

Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority  

Corporate and M&A 

Work highlights 

Instructed by Reliance Infrastructure, the team assisted on the Re188 billion ($2.7 billion) sale of its Mumbai power division to Adani Transmission. 

Key clients 

Emaar, Groupon, Indiabulls Real Estate, Jasper Ifotech, Reliance Infrastructure, Sistema Shyam Teleservices 

Dispute resolution  

Work highlights 

Successfully appealed a Securities Appellate Tribunal decision to the Supreme Court in the Satyam scam. The Supreme Court ruled that the client Chintalapati Srinivasa Raju, an entrepreneur and investor, did not commit insider trading. The court said that the Securities and Exchange Board of India had not clearly defined the word “insider”. 

Key clients 

Abbott Healthcare, Chennai Container Terminal, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Larsen & Toubro, PepsiCo, SAP 

Labour and employment 

Work highlights 

Handled the transfer of an employee from Japan to a subsidiary in India. Advising on the employee’s contractual rights under India’s employment laws was an element; anticipating contentious matters if the employee was terminated was also analysed. 

Key clients 

Sistema Shyam Teleservices  

Private equity 

Work highlights 

Worked with Indiabulls Real Estate on its equity sale in two subsidiaries, Indiabulls Properties and Indiabulls Real Estate, to Blackstone, a large US alternative asset management company. Deal structuring of 13 entities and managing the promoter’s indemnity agreement complicated the transaction.  

Instructed by Hero MotoCorp, the firm advised on its series B investment in Ather Energy, an Indian electric vehicle company. 

Assisted B Capital on two deals during the past 12 months: a series D investment in Mswipe Technologies, a mobile point of sale solution provider, and a series B investment into business-to-business industrial goods marketplace Bizongo. The round also involved IFC, IDG and Accel as investors.  

Key clients 

Amicus Capital, B Capital, Carlyle, Indiabulls Real Estate, Temasek 

Regulatory 

Work highlights 

Instructed by Sistema Shyam Teleservices, the firm managed the regulatory issues for the divestment of Sistema’s wireless division with Reliance Communications. 

Key clients 

Jasper Infotech, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Sistema Shyam Teleservices 

Client feedback 

“The JSA team is well aware of the needs of international companies and the quality and timing of work has been consistently excellent.” – Construction, Corporate and M&A, Dispute resolution 

“Excellent lawyer.” - Farhad Sorabjee