For over a decade, Shearman & Sterling has helped clients based in or focused on India to achieve their business goals. Our dedicated India Group, located in Asia, Europe, North and South America, and our innovative approach enable us to provide high-quality legal advisory solutions to clients interested in inbound or outbound opportunities relating to India.

Led by the firm’s Asia Managing Partner, Matthew Bersani, our India Group consists of a team of lawyers who provide integrated cross-practice advice on matters and transactions in M&A, private equity, capital markets, bank and project finance, arbitration and litigation, bankruptcy and reorganization, intellectual property, financial regulatory, antitrust, executive compensation and employee benefits, real estate and fund formation. The firm’s participation in several high-profile mergers and acquisitions, financings and arbitrations in the region stems from the valuable industry experience we provide in many key Indian sectors including metals and mining, energy, infrastructure, healthcare and telecommunications. Several of our lawyers are originally from India and South Asia and are fluent in major Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Urdu and Gujarati.

Although we do not practice Indian law, we maintain strong ties and work closely with top Indian law firms in order to offer effective representation to our clients in India and abroad. The firm's extensive resources and history assisting clients on the most significant India-related transactions and disputes make Shearman & Sterling a partner of choice for international business in South Asia. Because some of our lawyers were first admitted to practice in India and are dual qualified, they are able to effectively identify and resolve issues in conjunction with Indian counsel.

Our reputation is noted by a number of external commentators. On the strength of our Indian capital markets team, we were recognized as a leading foreign law firm in India by Asia Pacific Legal 500 for seven consecutive years (from 2004 to 2011), as a leading foreign law firm for capital markets in India and a leading foreign law firm for Corporate/M&A in India by Chambers Global 2011, and named as “International Capital Markets Team of the Year for 2008” at the Asialaw India Awards. In addition, the following transactions (described in greater detail in the list below) were named “Deals of the Year” by India Business Law Journal for 2010:

• MakeMyTrip Limited Nasdaq IPO
• Norwest Venture Partners US$425 million consortium investment in Asian Genco Pte. Ltd.
• Reliance Holding USA, Inc.’s US$1.5 billion guaranteed senior note offering

Reinforcing our reputation as one of the leading international law firms in India, Asia Pacific Legal 500 2010/2011 notes that the firm “provides a ‘top-notch’ service to a raft of high-profile Indian and international corporates in both inbound and outbound transactions.” And according to Chambers Global 2011, our clients praise our lawyers’ ability to “understand the Indian context and how issues need to be addressed with Indian regulations.”

Our recent India-related experience includes a number of significant transactions, including our representation of:

• The initial purchasers in connection with Vedanta Resources' US$1.65 billion bond offering
• Jaguar Land Rover on its £1 billion equivalent high-yield bond offering─the luxury carmaker's first since it was taken over by Indian-owned Tata Motors in June 2008
• Cals Refineries Ltd in the US$417 million acquisition of Cenco and Atas oil refinery assets from the Hardt Group
• Tata Steel UK Limited, which has signed an agreement to sell certain assets of Teesside Cast Products (TCP) to Sahaviriya Steel Industries Public Company Limited (SSI), Thailand’s largest steel producer, in a deal worth US$469 million plus an amount representing working capital
• Aditya Birla Group in connection with its agreement to acquire the Atlanta-based Columbian Chemicals Company from One Equity Partners, the merchant banking arm of J. P. Morgan Chase & Co.
• The joint lead arrangers in connection with the financing for U.S. outsourcer iGate in its proposed acquisition of Patni Computer Systems─one of the largest deals in India’s technology sector
• The initial purchasers in connection with Reliance Holding USA, Inc.'s 144A/Reg S US$1.5 billion bond offering─the largest ever corporate bond offering from India and the first private Indian corporate investment-grade issuance since 1997. This deal was recognized at the FinanceAsia Awards 2010 as the “Best Investment Grade Bond Deal”
• Norwest Venture Partners and The Xander Group Inc. in their proposed acquisition of an interest in Sadbhav Infrastructure Project Limited for Rs. 4 billion (approximately US$86 million)
• The underwriters in connection with the Nasdaq listing and US$80.5 million initial public offering of ordinary shares of MakeMyTrip Limited, the parent company of MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited, India's largest online travel agency. This was the first U.S. initial public offering by an Indian company since 2006 and was recognized as the “Best Small-Cap Deal” at the FinanceAsia Awards 2010. We also advised the underwriters in connection with the company’s US$126 million follow-on offering
• Norwest Venture Partners as part of a consortium of private equity investors in a US$425 million investment in Asian Genco, an infrastructure company with power generation assets in India. This is the biggest private equity transaction in the power sector in India and is the first investment in India in excess of US$300 million since 2008