Clients in the private equity and investments sphere frequently seek out Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton’s India practice for its expertise in inbound and outbound M&A, restructurings, and cross-border transactions. Key contacts in the team include Tihir Sarkar and Nallini Puri, who lead on India work from the firm’s London office and regularly act for sovereign wealth funds and multinational corporates, where Michael Preston is another key name.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Cleary is a go-to firm for several sovereign funds and pension funds investing in India. They are amongst the few white-shoe firms giving importance to strategic India work. We have a good relationship with Cleary’s partners dealing in key India matters and primarily work with them on large inbound investments into India. We have found them to be solution-oriented and methodical with their approaches.'

  • 'They understand the Indian legal and regulatory regime and market practice which allows them to preempt issues that could otherwise cause delays and value leakage subsequently. In addition, they seamlessly integrate specialists from their global practice areas (including antitrust, compliance, intellectual property, finance, tax and others) to respond efficiently to the needs of the client.'
  • ‘Cleary’s India practice, including in particular Tihir Sarkar and Nallini Puri for corporate/M&A matters, are technically excellent, alert and responsive to clients’ needs, thoughtful both in identifying problematic issues and suggesting workable solutions, and collaborative in their approach.'

  • 'Michael Preston is active on large and complex India deals.’
  • ‘Thought leadership, innovation and the best clients in the business. Deep expertise across the digital economy and traditional sectors in antitrust.'

  • ‘Nallini Puri - brilliant, commercial, one of the best PE lawyers around.'

Key clients

  • American Express
  • ArcelorMittal
  • British International Investment
  • Brookfield
  • Coca-Cola
  • GlaxoSmithKline plc
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Temasek
  • TPG Asia
  • TPG Capital
  • TPG Rise Climate
  • Wockhardt

Work highlights

  • Representing a sovereign wealth fund and TPG Capital on the restructuring of their investment in UPL Corporation and their acquisition of a minority stake in UPL Sustainable Agri Solutions.
  • Representing Goldman Sachs in a sale of shares in ReNew Power to Canadian Pension Fund Investment Board for a total consideration of $399.99m.
  • Advised British International Investment in a partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra that will see BII invest up to $250m in a new joint venture that will develop four-wheel passenger electric vehicles for Indian consumers and other markets around the world.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Tihir Sarkar, Nallini Puri

Other key lawyers

Michael Preston