Bharucha & Partners

About the firm: Bharucha & Partners was founded on enduring principles of professional ethics and excellence. The firm now has offices in three cities with 13 partners and over 100 associates who offer a mix of rich experience, creativity, and the energy of youth. Each partner has a wealth of experience handling complex commercial transactions or disputes and associates are selected as sharing the qualities and vision of the partners. An expertise in corporate and commercial practice along with mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation, international and domestic arbitration, investment funds, laws of crime, governance, ethics, and anti-corruption, banking and finance, project finance, capital markets and securities law, HR and employment law, regulatory and compliance, intellectual property, insolvency resolution, restructuring, and stressed assets, competition and antitrust, direct tax, indirect tax, real estate, private client, social impact and policy, and general corporate advisory is well recognised. The firm counts leading international and Indian corporate houses, banks, financial institutions, and funds as clients. The firm advises clients on domestic and cross-border issues across sectors including banks and NBFCs, defence and aerospace, energy (conventional and renewable), fintech, food and beverages (including water), ports and logistics, private clients, real estate, roads, securities and financial markets intermediaries, technology, media, and telecommunications, and trade (wholesale and retail).

Key contacts 

• MP Bharucha – founder, senior partner
• Alka Bharucha – senior partner
• Justin Bharucha – managing partner
• Vandana Pai – partner, head – investment funds practice

Client feedback  

• M P Bharucha “has an established reputation as a stalwart of the dispute resolution market. He has an excellent reputation for his cross-border litigation skills and additionally advises on arbitration and mediation matters”.
• Alka Bharucha “handles a prodigious amount of work. Her engagements span domestic and cross-border deals, and she is cited as a ‘fabulous’ practitioner with a ’meticulous’ approach and up-to-date knowledge of the law”
• Justin M Bharucha  "is instructed on a range of international acquisitions, asset purchases and transfers”.
• Vandana Pai “is 'responsive, clear in her comments, and generally very practical and commercially minded.’ She represents leading global funds in key private equity and venture capital investments in India across various sectors”.

Key transactional practices with details of the relevant lawyers –
Banking and finance

• Advised Visakha Container Terminal Private Limited (a part of the JM Baxi Group) in availing financial facilities aggregating to INR 8.273bn.
• Advised State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited on a loan facility amounting to approximately INR 59bn.
• Advised the Edelweiss Group Companies in subscribing to the debentures issued by Kohinoor CTNL Infrastructure Company Private Limited and amending the terms of the debentures aggregating up to INR 6.5bn on a private-placement basis under the resolution plan approved by the NCLT.
• Advised DCB Bank with the INR 4.80bn acquisition of certain assets of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC (ADCB) consisting of loans, cash credits, bank guarantees and liabilities such as fixed deposits, current and savings accounts.
• Advised Safeway Concessions (a part of the Macquarie group and comprising of nine Indian concessionaires) on raising approx. INR 50bn financing from Yes Bank for funding the concession fee for the 1st Toll Operate Transfer concession package in India.

Key clients: State Bank of India, Profectus Capital, Edelweiss Group.
Contacts: Alka Bharucha, Justin Bharucha, Rohit Sharma
Emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Corporate / mergers and acquisitions:

• Advised Vodafone Idea Limited on the divestment of its passive infrastructure assets through the sale of its wholly owned tower subsidiary to the ATC Group for INR 40bn and its exit from Indus Towers as part of the proposed merger of Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel.
• Advised General Motors on its asset sale to Tata Consultancy Services Limited, estimated between US$600bn to US$700bn.
• Advised IMCD NV and IMCD India Private Limited on its acquisition of 70% equity stake in Signet Excipients Private Limited for INR 28.5bn.
• Advised Prakash Steelage Limited on the sale of its entire shareholding in its joint venture with Tubacex S.A. for US$46m.
• Advised Grasim Industries Limited on various mergers and joint venture agreements of its subsidiary companies with domestic and foreign companies.

Key clients: The Aditya Birla Group, General Motors, J. M. Baxi Group.
Contacts: Alka Bharucha, Justin Bharucha
Emails: [email protected], [email protected]

Dispute resolution:

• Represented HSBC France S.A. before the National Company Law Tribunal with respect to establishing its claim for financial debt against Reliance Telecom Limited in the insolvency resolution proceedings.
• Represented ITC Limited on its dispute with Hotel Leelaventure Limited before various fora.
• Represented Prysmian Cavi e Sistemi in proceedings to enforce an LCIA award before the High Court Mumbai.
• Represented Sony Pictures Network India Private Limited on multiple issues of regulatory law, copyright, broadcasting, and distribution issues, and cyberlaws before various fora.

Key clients: ITC Limited, Vodafone Idea Limited, Sony Pictures Network India Private Limited.
Contacts: MP Bharucha, Karthik Somasundram, Sneha Jaisingh, Shreya Sircar
Emails: [email protected],  [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].

Investment funds:

• Advised General Atlantic on multiple investments including in Sorting Hat Technologies Private Limited, Rubicon Research Private Limited, Absolute Barbeque Private Limited, Capital Foods India Private Limited, IIFL Wealth Limited, Indiaideas.com and Nobroker Technologies.
• Advised Brighton Park Capital on multiple investments, including in Indegene Ltd.
• Advised Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets on multiple investments, including its successful bid for the 1st Toll Operate Transfer Bundle of 9 road projects.
• Advised Vedantu Innovations Private Limited on the investment by Tiger Global, Accel, Omidyar, TAL Education Group, WestBridge and others.
• Advised Girnar Software Private Limited on multiple series of investment, including from Sequoia Hillhouse, Google and HDFC Bank.

Key clients: General Atlantic, Apollo Global, Ivanhoé, Cambridge.
Contacts: Vandana Pai, Swathi Girimaji
Emails: [email protected] [email protected].

Capital markets and securities law:

• Advised Inga Capital Private Limited, Investec Capital Services (India) Private Limited and Srei Capital Markets Limited, the underwriters on the public issue of equity shares by Bharat Road Network Limited aggregating approximately INR 6bn.
• Advised State Bank of India, the issuer on the rights issue of its equity shares aggregating approximately INR 167bn.
• Advised Muthoot Vehicle & Asset Finance Limited on the public issue of its non-convertible debentures aggregating to INR 2bn.
• Advised and represented Gautham Thapar and various ex-C-suite employees of CG Power and Industrial Solutions Limited, Avantha Holdings Limited, Solaris Industrial Chemicals Limited on various proceedings before the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Securities Appellate Tribunal arising from allegations of fraud at CG Power.
• Represented B. Ramalinga Raju and B. Rama Raju in the appeal preferred by them before the Securities Appellate Tribunal in the matter of Satyam Computer Services.

Key clients: Inga Advisors, Axis Bank Limited, The Federal Bank
Contacts: Vishnu Dutt, Mehul Jain
Emails: [email protected],  [email protected]

Governance, ethics and anti- corruption:

• Advised the Central Bureau of Investigation in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.
• Represented Diageo Plc. Plc in multiple proceedings before various fora against an order passed by the Securities Exchange Board of India which held its open offer violative of the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011.
• Advised and represented Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Private Limited in the 2G spectrum case, CBI v. A. Raja, before the Central Bureau of Investigation Special Court and the Delhi High Court.
• Advised and represented Ashok Daga in multiple proceedings arising out of the coal block allocation scam, before the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Directorate of Enforcement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
• Advised and represented a corporate in prosecution launched by the Directorate of Enforcement arising out of coal block allocations and allegations re proceeds of crime aggregating to INR 2.25 billion.

Key clients: Telenor, Ashok Daga, DHFL
Contacts: Sonam Gupta, Sneha Jaisingh.
Emails: [email protected], [email protected].

TMT and intellectual property:

• Advised and represented Vodafone Idea Ltd on a range of regulatory, intellectual property, and technology law matters before various fora, including challenges to: Interconnection Usage Charges; Telecommunication Tariff (63rd Amendment) Order, 2018; retrospective levy of spectrum charges; retrospective levy of property tax on cellular towers and sites; and the denial of points of interconnection to Reliance.
• Advised and represented Sony Pictures Network India before various fora on multiple issues of regulatory law, copyright, broadcasting, and distribution issues, and cyberlaws, including a challenge to the statutory instruments issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and separate disputes against Noida Software Technology Park Limited, Sai-Sapru Creations, and SunNxt.
• Represented Balaji Motion Pictures on various contentious matters before arbitral tribunals and the Bombay High Court
• Represented Minnow Films Limited in defamation suits filed by Sahara India for the permanent injunction on the release of its documentary titled ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ before the Supreme Court of India, Patna High Court, and the District Court of Araria, and in the pre-production and post-production process for several projects undertaken in India for potential trademarks, copyrights, and personality rights infringements.
• Advised Samsung India Electronics Private Limited, One97 Communication, CVC Capital, Flipkart Internet Private Limited, Sprandi International, Alchem International Private Limited, Dragonfly Education Private Limited, Digivive Services Private Limited, Vedific Learning Solutions Private Limited, NetProphets Cyberworks Private Limited, and several others on various intellectual property matters.

Key clients: Sony Pictures Network India, Vodafone Idea Limited, Minnow Films Limited.
Contacts: Kaushik Moitra, Karthik Somasundram
Emails: [email protected], [email protected]

HR and employment law:

• Represented Firstsource Solutions Limited  in disputes before the labour courts and labour commissioners, including disputes filed by the employees for wrongful termination.
• Advised Alchem International Private Limited on a range of labour and employment law matters, including termination of employees, drafting of documents and company HR policies, replying to legal notices, and advising on sexual harassment complaints, amongst other matters.
• Advised General Motors on the transfer of employees from General Motors Technical Centre India Private Limited to Tata Consultancy Services Limited and the transfer of its employees in its Talegaon plant as part of a proposed share sale to Great Wall Motors.
• Advised Tata Communications Limited and Tata Communications Transformation Services Limited on multiple employment law matters, including the issue involving the liability of their officials where employees had died during employment.
• Advised BarRaiser Private Limited, Designmate (India) Private Limited, NetProphets Cyberworks Private Limited, Savantis Solutions India Private Limited, and other technology companies on multiple labour and employment law matters, including termination of employees, drafting of documents and company HR policies, replying to legal notices, and advising on government notifications and circulars.

Key clients: General Motors, FirstSource Solutions Limited, Tata Communications Limited.
Contacts: Justin Bharucha, Vandana Pai
Emails:  [email protected], [email protected]. 

Infrastructure:

• Advised the J. M. Baxi Group’s Visakha Container Terminal Private Limited in relation to availing of financial facilities for the construction and operation of facilities at a new container terminal located at outer harbour of the Visakhapatnam Port for INR 8.273bn.
• Advised J. M. Baxi Group’s International Cargo Terminal and Infrastructure Private Limited (ICTIPL) in relation to the investment from Bain Capital through its entity Integral Investments South Asia VIII for a 39% in ICTIPL for approximately INR 50bn.
• Advised the portfolio companies of Macquarie Fund in relation to the assignment and novation of loans given to concessionaires by Yes Bank Limited to the State Bank of India and providing general advice on loan moratoriums during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Advised the Edelweiss Group Companies in subscribing to the debentures issued by Kohinoor CTNL Infrastructure Company Private Limited and amending the terms of the debentures aggregating up to INR 6.5bn on a private-placement basis under the resolution plan approved by the NCLT.
• Advised NIIF Infrastructure Finance Limited on the loan facility it extended to M/S Clean Max Photovoltaic Private Limited, aggregating to INR 1.48bn.

Key clients: J. M. Baxi Group, Macquarie Fund, SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited Adani Enterprises Limited .
Contacts: Alka Bharucha, Justin Bharucha, Rohit Sharma
Emails: [email protected], [email protected],  [email protected] 

Sectoral experience –

• Banks and NBFCs
• Defence and Aerospace
• Energy (conventional and renewable)
• Fintech
• Food and beverages (including water)
• Ports and logistics
• Private clients
• Real estate
• Roads
• Securities and financial markets intermediaries
• Technology, media, and telecommunications
• Trade (wholesale and retail)

Number of partners:  13
Number of lawyers: 100
Languages: English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Konkani, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali

Offices
Mumbai
13^th Floor, Free Press House
Free Press Journal Marg
Nariman Point
Mumbai 400 021. India
T. +91 22 2289 9300
F. +91 22 2282 3900

New Delhi
Equity Mansion R-1, Nehru Enclave
New Delhi 110 019
T. +91 11 4593 9300
F. +91 11 4593 9399

Bengaluru
WeWork Galaxy 43, Residency Road
Ashok Nagar
Bengaluru 560 025
T. +91 80 4614 5993
F. +91 80 4614 5994

[email protected]

www.bharucha.in