Monday, February 25, 2008

Market declines; off goes PE deals, but law firms connect….

ICICI Venture and Jaypee Infratech have terminated negotiations for the PE player buying close to 10-15% stake for $800 million in the infrastructure company, which is developing project worth $ 25 billion. Earlier Blackstone backed off from buying 26% stake in Hyderabad-based Ushodaya Enterprises (of Eenadu newspapers and television channels) for $275 million. Similarly, Future group’s PE fund Indivision cancelled its deal to buy 4.9% stake for Rs 250 crore in media house Zee TV’s DTH venture Dish TV following the market meltdown that saw Dish TV share prices sliding far below the deal price.

But as they say, lawyers never lose. Allen and Overy, a leading international law firm and Trilegal, an Indian law firm, confirmed their new arrangement involving client referrals, training, consultation and joint marketing.

Allen and Overy say they belong to a “magic circle” – now what is that? I guess it’s a law firms moniker akin to "Big Four" for accounting firms. At least magic circle is more overt a term – the client will realize he’ll be (financially) done in as if by magic….
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