Khaitan news: Khaitan & Co becomes the first Indian law firm to reach the 200-partner mark

Khaitan & Co, a more than a century old firm, on Thursday announced its partner promotion, becoming the first Indian law firm to reach the 200 partners milestone.

The addition of new partners and counsel brings the firm’s leadership strength to 200 partners and 25 lawyers and the total bench strength to 880 lawyers, giving it the distinction of becoming the first Indian law firm to reach a double century-partner count.

“A leadership team of 200 partners is a major milestone for us and a symbol of our tremendous growth journey,” said Hargrave Khaitan, Senior Partner, Khaitan & Co. “While we have an old legacy behind us, we stay young in our mindset and look to our young partners to keep us fit on this journey.”

The legal expenditure of listed Indian companies during the financial year ended March 31, 2021 was reported to be Rs 36,973.75 crore as per their annual report. It is expected to grow significantly during FY 2022 due to increase in overall business activities including M&A, IPO and other general policy and corporate advisory functions.

In July 2020, Khaitan & Co became the first Indian firm to cross the 150-partners mark.

“Most of our partners are domestic and will uphold our unique culture and value systems,” said Amar Singhji, executive director of human resources at Khaitan & Co. and steady growth for more than 110 years.”

Established in 1911 in Kolkata (then Calcutta), the firm currently has offices in New Delhi, Noida, Bengaluru, Chennai and Singapore.

According to Neha Kashyap, founder of Gray Matter, a consultant to law firms, the country is now a $3.1 trillion economy and is expected to grow over $5 trillion. Kashyap said, “We will need many more such firms in the near future which are growing to the level when the overall economy is growing so fast.” “For Khaitan, the strong partnership of 200 personnel will not only make it easier for customers but will enable a niche for each with respect to practice areas and industry sectors.”

Originally published at Pen 18

Flipkart infuses nearly $700 million in its marketplace and healthcare unit

Bangalore: Ecommerce major Flipkart has invested about $553 million in its marketplace business, according to a recent regulatory filing in Singapore. Additionally, it has invested $143 million in its healthcare arm Flipkart Health, these filings show. With the new capital coming in, this takes the total cash flow by Flipkart into the two entities—Flipkart Marketplace Private Limited and Flipkart Health Private Limited—to approximately $700 million.

The fresh cash is being deployed at a time when Walmart-owned Flipkart is scaling up several new businesses such as epharmacy, travel, social commerce platform Shopee and doubling down on its grocery business.

The Bengaluru-based company has also allotted new ESOPs (Employee Stock Owner Program) in Flipkart Pvt Ltd, the filing showed.

The investments in Flipkart Marketplace and Flipkart Health are made through Flipkart Pvt Ltd. Flipkart is domiciled in Singapore and has various entities registered in India through which it conducts its business here.

A Flipkart spokesperson declined to comment on ETTech’s query on Thursday.

Apart from the marketplace investment, Flipkart’s new money for the health arm is significant as it recently appointed Prashant Jhaveri as its CEO.

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In an interview with ET in January, Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had said that healthcare would be one of the businesses it wants to scale this year.

Flipkart has also made strategic investments for its pharmacology and travel units.

This comes at a time when upstarts like Meesho are trying to battle bigger rivals like Flipkart and Amazon India and Singapore’s Shopee, which abruptly exited the local market earlier this week, first reported by ETTech. Gone.

Last year, Flipkart raised $3.6 billion in its first external funding since its acquisition of Walmart in 2018. The round valued the company at $37.6 billion, compared to $24.9 billion in 2020 with $1.2 billion raised in an internal round led by Walmart.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Flipkart’s largest shareholder Walmart led the round with participation from existing backers such as Qatar Investment Authority.

“Shopsea, grocery, travel and healthcare, these are big and we have invested in a big way,” Krishnamurthy told ET in January.

ET reported on February 18 that Flipkart had started delivering groceries in parts of Bengaluru in 45 minutes, halving its quick delivery service time from 90 minutes under Flipkart Quick. It plans to expand to 45-minute delivery in other cities, but is unlikely to enter the 15-20 minute ultrafast grocery delivery business. Krishnamurthy had said in his interview with ET that he doesn’t think 15-minute delivery is the right model for consumers on a longer-term basis.

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Originally published at Pen 18

RCB Won: Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 3 wickets

Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.

RCB chased down a target of 129 runs with four balls to spare, with Sherfane Rutherford scoring 28 runs while Shahbaz Ahmed scored 27 runs.

For KKR, Tim Southee took three wickets for 20 runs while Umesh Yadav took two wickets.

Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore dismissed Kolkata Knight Riders for 128 runs.

Andre Russell scored 25 runs in 18 balls for KKR.

For RCB, Wanindu Hasaranga took four wickets for 20 runs, while Akash Deep and Harshal Patel took three and two wickets respectively.

Brief Scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders: 128 all out in 18.5 overs (Andre Russell 25; Vanindu Hasaranga 4/20, Akash Deep 3/45, Harshal Patel 2/11).

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 132 for 7 in 19.2 overs (Sherfen Rutherford 28, Shahbaz Ahmed 27; Tim Southee 3/20, Umesh Yadav 2/16).

Originally published at Pen 18

KKR News: KKR to sell 10% stake in Max Health for Rs 3500 cr through block deals

US private equity firm KKR & Co on Thursday set to raise Rs 3,500 crore by selling its nearly 10 per cent stake in Max Healthcare through multiple block deals.

As per the terms of the deal seen by ET, Kayak Investments, an affiliate of KKR, will sell shares in the range of Rs 340 to Rs 361, offering a discount of up to 6 per cent from Wednesday’s close.

KKR, which acquired a stake in Max in 2018, will sell 7.76 crore shares in the base case and will have the option to extend the offer to sell another 1.93 crore shares.

Jefferies and Kotak Mahindra Capital are the bankers to the transaction.

When contacted, KKR declined to comment.

In September, KKR sold 8.44 crore shares for Rs 2,956 crore through multiple block deals and shares were picked up by institutional investors including HDFC Mutual Fund, Veritas Fund and SBI Mutual Fund, regulatory data showed.

KKR in association with Mumbai-headquartered Radiant, which forms the US PE firm’s healthcare investment platform in India, bought a 49.70 per cent stake in Max Healthcare from South Africa-based Life Healthcare Group Holdings for about Rs 2,120 crore.

The stock closed at Rs 364, up 2.39 per cent in Max.

Originally published at Pen 18

shiv sena: Shiv Sena caught in a predicament over refinery project

The Maharashtra government has suggested the Center to set up the Nanar Refinery Project at Barsu village of Rajapur in Ratnagiri district.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier this year written to the PM informing that the state wanted the project to be located in Barsu village and that the state was ready to facilitate the project.

However, the Shiv Sena is now stuck in a situation of its own construction as hundreds of villagers from Barsu on Wednesday marched to the Rajapur tehsil office and asked the government not to go ahead with the project in Barsu as it would harm the environment.

The Shiv Sena, when it was in power with the BJP in 2014, stalled the project in Nanar after protests by villagers.

Responding to the protest, Minister Aaditya Thackeray said, “The project will be implemented only after taking people into confidence.”

Originally published at Pen 18

congress: Maharashtra Congress chief says there are issues amid ‘MLAs-ministers rift’

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Wednesday did not deny the fact that angry Congress MLAs in the state wanted to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi, saying she did nothing in meeting its president to air their grievances among party leaders. Didn’t see wrong.

A day after ET reported that Congress MLAs wanted to meet Sonia Gandhi so that all their concerns were not addressed by Congress ministers in the MVA government, Nana Patole admitted that some issues had to be resolved.

He said, “There will be some issues in the three-party government. As far as Congress MLAs meeting the Congress President, whether it is MLA or any other office-bearer, if they express their desire to meet the leader of their party, So I don’t. Patole told reporters in Pune, “Don’t think it’s wrong. There is no reason for any misunderstanding.”

Asked if the MLAs’ grievances have reached him, he said, “In a family there is sometimes happiness and sometimes there is misery. MLAs tell us what is happening, but that doesn’t mean MLAs are angry. Legislators are working on their own. constituencies and districts to strengthen the party machinery.”

Meanwhile, Patole has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking him to implement the Common Minimum Program (CMP) agreed during the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. He said that the government should implement projects for Muslims and Dalits.

Originally published at Pen 18

congress: Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project in Gujarat shelved just for polls: Congress

The Gujarat Congress has alleged that the Centre’s decision to stall the controversial Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project was a ‘gimmick’. Party leaders on Wednesday vowed to continue the ongoing tribal agitation in the southern part of Gujarat till the Center scrapped the project and released a white paper on the project’s “probability of damage to tribal dwellings”. Would do it

The Centre, along with the BJP’s state government, is believed to have quickly backtracked on the ambitious project given the potential for damage to the tribal movement in the assembly elections due later this year. The Congress’s attempt to keep this issue alive is also attributed to this. The tribal movement against the project intensified after the state Congress joined in, and soon senior Union ministers engaged in hectic talks with their Gujarat counterparts before announcing a halt to the project.

At a media briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday, Gujarat’s Leader of Opposition Sukhram Rathwa, Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil and a key activist of the movement, Anand Patel, MLA, said they would consider the government’s announcement of keeping the project a ‘jumla’. We do. Inspired by the assembly elections held at the end of the year. He argued that the Center would revive the project, as fuel price hike was resumed after it was stopped during the recent assembly elections. Agitator-turned-celebrity Congress leader Hardik Patel was supposed to attend the briefing along with party colleagues but did not turn up.

Originally published at Pen 18