Overview

Harish Kumar, Partner with Luthra and Luthra Law Offices India, a full-service law firm [formerly L&L Partners], is accredited with over 22 (twenty-two) years of diversified experience in dealing with complex legal issues and enabling solutions and implementation for businesses and clients. His expertise pans wide range of corporate, and legal matters including mergers & acquisitions, corporate restructuring, insolvency, joint ventures, fintech, corporate disputes, employment and advising on varied aspects concerning corporate governance and regulatory interface.

Harish brings a unique blend of business thinking and strategy to structuring, negotiating, and closing complex commercial and corporate transactions. His background in commerce and corporate laws helps bringing a realistic and risk based holistic approach which seamlessly and effectively helps in delivering the best solution to the clients. During his professional journey, Harish has advised a number of domestic and multinational companies, including various Fortune 500 companies, in his dynamic practice areas.

Aside, Harish has extensively dealt with various ministries and departments of Government of India, including Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Competition Commission of India. His advisory role also extends to various advice given to Government of India and key industry associations like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM on various practical & legal issues being posed by industries from time to time. Harish has also been a regular speaker at various seminars/workshops being conducted by professional and government bodies.

Overview

With nearly 16 years of invaluable experience under his belt, Karan specializes in rendering advisory and legal assistance in the field of foreign and domestic debt financing in India with clients ranging in various sectors including renewables, roads, ports, steel, thermal power, transmission, airports, hospitality, healthcare, real estate.

Karan has a holistic approach to structuring and negotiating finance and restructuring deals, having advised several stakeholders including borrowers, sponsors, lenders and bond-holders. He has advised clients on myriad financing transactions including project finance, structured finance, corporate finance, restructurings, cross-border financings, debenture issuances and overseas direct investments.

Karan’s roster of clients includes New Development Bank, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., Intesa Sanpaolo S.P.A, Bank of America, Siemens Bank GmbH, DBS Bank, Société Générale, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Nordic Investment Bank, State Bank of India, PFC Limited, REC Limited, L&T Finance Limited, ICICI Bank, Tata Capital, Aseem Infrastructure, HDFC Bank, Aditya Birla Finance, Virescent (KKR backed renewable platform), Engie, GIP (Global Infrastructure Partners), Enel Group, the Adani Group, Renew Power, amongst others.

He is a Member of the India Committee of APLMA and is on the Editorial board of EQ, one of India’s premier publishing and research houses for renewable energy in India. He has also been featured in the Asia Law Client Servicing Report, 2020, which highlights lawyers who have consistently delivered high quality service to clients.

Experience Statement

• Advised Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., Hong Kong Branch, Export-Import Bank of India, India Infrastructure Finance Company (UK) Limited, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Société Générale and YES Bank Limited, on foreign currency term loan facilities for an aggregate amount not exceeding USD 425 Million in connection with the construction, operation and maintenance of a 200 MW Round The Clock hybrid project in Rajasthan, being developed by Serentica Renewables India 4 Private Limited.
  • ‘Indian Deal of the Year’ award by Project Finance International (PFI) 2023.
  •  ‘Exemplary Deal- LegalOne Merits’ by LegalOne.
• Advised DBS Bank in connection with the ECB financing of SGD 470 Million provided to Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals Private Limited (part of the PSA group, Singapore) for the Phase II of the Fourth Container Terminal at Navi, Mumbai, India.
• Advised Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (United Kingdom) in connection with financial assistance in the form of an external commercial borrowing facility aggregating to approximately USD 31 Million, to a company developing, implementing and setting up a 100 MW (AC) solar power project.
• Advised Renew Surya Roshni Private Limited in connection with ECB facilities availed by it from a consortium of 12 lenders for an amount equivalent to USD Equivalent of INR 78 Billion approx. in relation to the financing, construction and operation of a 400 MW capacity "Round The Clock" Project.
• Advised SB Energy Six Private Limited (sponsored by SB Energy Holdings Limited, a part of the SoftBank group) in an ECB financing for an aggregate amount of USD 266 Million approx. and JPY 7,415,000,000 involving lenders from various jurisdictions including MUFG Bank Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank.
  • ‘India Green Project of the Year' award at Asset Triple A- Asia Infrastructure Awards 2021.
  • 'Indian Green Deal of the Year' award by Project Finance International (PFI) 2020.

Overview

Nishant is a Partner at Luthra and Luthra Law Offices India and specializes in the area of Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity & Venture Capital and Banking & Finance.

Nishant is admitted to practice law in India and the State of New York (USA). In the last 19 years, Nishant has worked on a wide array of equity and debt financing transactions across multiple sectors and countries. In the M&A space, he has worked on listed as well as unlisted company transactions including, public takeover, PIPE, going private, JV and minority or majority equity investments. As regards the debt investment, he advises on structured debt funding and re-structuring transactions.

Nishant also advises corporate houses and HNI’s in relation to investigations by government agencies like Serious Fraud Investigation Office, Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate, Economic Offence Wing for charges of bribery, money laundering, corporate fraud and various other offences and assists clients in formation of internal corporate policies and structures against anti-bribery, anti-corruption, anti-corporate fraud, whistleblowing, anti-sexual harassment, data privacy and cyber security.

His past international experience of working with the top tier law firms in San Francisco, New York and London offers his clients a distinctive approach and expertise on cross-border deals.

Experience Statement

• Advised American International Group Inc. in its sale of American Life Insurance Corporation to MetLife Inc. for USD 15.5 Billion.
• Advised Future Group, in relation to USD 5 Billion debt re-structuring of Future Retail Limited, Future Enterprises Limited, Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited, Future Consumer Limited, Future Supply Chain Solutions Limited, and other unlisted companies for all outstanding debt owed to 28 Indian banks-consortium under the resolution framework for COVID-19-related stress announced by the Reserve Bank of India.
• Advised Novo Holdings A/S to acquire majority stake in Manipal Health Enterprises for USD 3.6 Billion alongside investors Temasek, The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and TPG Asia.
  • The transaction is a part of the largest private equity deal in the Indian healthcare sector.
• Represented Pocket Aces Pictures Private Limited, through its board of directors (‘Pocket Aces’), and its founders, Aditi Shrivastava, Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita, in relation to its acquisition by Saregama India Limited (‘Saregama’), a subsidiary of RP-Sanjiv Goenka (RPSG) Group. Saregama will initially acquire 51.8% shares in Pocket Aces, with the subsequent acquisition of another ~41% stake in next 15 months at pre-agreed multiples. The transaction is an all-cash deal.
  • The deal was listed as one of the top 10 mergers and acquisitions deals.
• Advised Orange S.A., a listed company, in relation to its acquisition of Bharti Airtel Limited’s (a listed company) offshore subsidiaries in two African countries (Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone) for approx. USD 1 Billion.
• Advised Agritrade Resources Ltd., a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in relation to acquisition of SKS Power Generation (Chhattisgarh) Limited through a One Time Settlement of USD 350 Million approx.for all outstanding debt to State Bank of India, L&T Infrastructure Finance Company Limited and PTC (India) Financial Services Limited.
• Advised Engie Solar SAS and Electro Solaire Private Limited, in a project financing for an amount of USD 100 Million approx.availed from the Asian Development Bank and Société Générale for setting up a 2x 100MW AC grid-connected solar PV project in Raghanesda Solar Park, Gujarat.
• Advised IndoStar Capital Finance, a listed company, in relation to Brookfield Asset Management’s acquisition of 40% stake for INR 1225 Crore through a mix of primary and secondary shares from Everstone Capital, infusion of capital in IndoStar Capital Finance, and public shareholders under the Takeover Code.
• Advised Cipla Limited, in relation to its acquisition of brand rights to market derma and cosmeceutical products manufactured by Percos India.
• Advised Reliance Jio, in relation to its acquisition of properties related to telecom towers from Reliance Communications.
• Advised NewQuest Capital Partners, in relation to its acquisition of a minority stake in Kids Clinic India Private Limited (operating as Cloudnine chain of hospitals), through a combination of a primary investment and acquisition of secondary stake from existing investors and other shareholders in Cloudnine.
• Advised Pharmarack Technologies, in relation to its 92% acquisition by ABCD Technologies LLP, a digital health firm backed by Sun Pharma, Lupin, Cadilla Healthcare and Torrent.

Suprio’s career spans over 30 years, in diverse settings. He started his career with United Nations before moving to academics, then in-house and finally transitioned to private practice from general counsel practice of more than 2 decades.

Suprio’s focus areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity, general corporate and commercial matters, intellectual property, technology, media & telecommunication, labour & employment, ESG, real estate, anti-corruption & compliance, data privacy and litigations/dispute resolution for clients across the sectors such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, healthcare, technology, media, entertainment, telecommunication, energy and real estate, etc.

Experience Statement

• Advised Board of the listed companies of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Schneider Electric India, Honeywell JVs in India.

• Advised Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in M&A and business deals with Wockhardt, UCB, Astra Zeneca, etc and Securities Class Action, Anti-trust litigation and Pricing litigations in the USA and India.

• Advised Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in pharma statutory compliances, FCPA compliances and data privacy compliances.

• Advised Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in prosecution matters with the Dept. of Justice, USA and IP class actions in USA.

• Advised Schneider Electric in power and renewable energy projects both in utility and solar sectors.

• Advised Honeywell in SEZ related matters, real estate deals, global integration in various acquisitions and technology transfer to NAL and other aerospace commercial deals.

• Advised GE and Honeywell in cross border IP transactions, technology transfer, patent protection, licensing, anti-counterfeit strategy & actions and statutory compliances.

• Advised the Government of India in legislative drafting, profit sharing model for CSIR laboratories, IITs and IISc.

Overview

Vivek K. Agarwal is a Partner with Luthra and Luthra Law Offices India with over 15 years of diversified experience and has dealt with clients across continents and specializes in dealing with wide array of legal and associated business issues and offers solutions to business and legal needs of clients. He has the experience of advising on wide range of corporate legal matters including advising on India entry/ set-up and exit/ insolvency, corporate governance issues, restructuring, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions.

Vivek has extensively dealt with various ministries and departments of the Government of India including the Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Reserve Bank of India and has also been a contributor to the Government in its efforts to bring about changes in policies and business landscape in India from an ‘Ease of Doing Business’ perspective. He is also a regular contributor to the World Bank in conducting its ‘Ease of Doing Business’ study in India.

Vivek has advised various multinational as well domestic clients in areas of corporate and commercial laws and has helped a number of clients’ set-up their India presence and strategize their business closure and India exit and also on obtaining relevant government approvals. His experience brings in a mix of effective implementation strategy and legal expertise and he strives to deliver the best solution to clients with his practical approach and efforts to balance risk with desired client objective.

Experience Statement

• Acted at the behest of one of the largest steel manufacturers in the world in its acquisition of the distressed steel business of the Essar group in India under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
• Assisted the monitoring agency in negotiations and implementation of the resolution plan of an Indian listed steel major in acquisition of another listed entity in the steel business under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
• Assisted in completing the acquisition of the shares of the Indian subsidiaries of a leading identity management solutions provider in the United States following which the acquirer became the world leader in biometric identity solutions.
• Assisted a Chinese business house in completion of their asset and business acquisition of Brakes business units from a premier supplier of automotive chassis products to OEMs in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
• Assisted in setting-up of the successful venture which holds the exclusive right to organize and stage the hugely successful ‘Pro-Kabaddi League’.