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Khaitan Legal Associates is a partnership is registered in Mumbai, India.
Sakate heads the corporate M&A, funds, employment, restructuring and insurance practice at Khaitan Legal Associates. Sakate advises clients on inward investments into India and on an array of India-focused cross border transactions. Having started his career in litigation, Sakate has over 11 years of litigation experience advising various clients in their disputes that included high profile joint venture disputes, tax disputes and disputes with regulators. Sakate also serves on the boards of several companies as a non-executive director, lending his legal and business acumen to businesses around the globe. Sakate assists clients with pragmatic and commercially sound advice on dealing with Indian rules and regulations. His clients include multinationals, private equity funds, financial institutions, fund managers, and HNIs.
In his experience that spans over two decades Sakate demonstrates a deep commercial understanding of several industry sectors and significant transactional insights that offer immense value to the client.
Sakate is the alumnus of London Business School (“LBS”) and is also the co-founder of the India Business Forum (“IBF”) at LBS. The IBF is a platform that was created to build awareness and facilitate discussions on and encourage cross border investments to/from India.
Sakate is dual qualified and is a member of the Bar Council of India and is also admitted as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. However, he exclusively practices Indian law.
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Advised an AIF and an offshore fund in their private equity investment into a leasing woman’s apparel brand in India, structuring the business particularly the e-commerce activities in line with the foreign exchange regulations in India.
Advised the majority shareholder of one of India’s largest talent management agencies on the acquisition of shares of the promoter and structuring the payout to the exiting promoter to secure ongoing compliance.
Advised existing joint ventures in the media and entertainment space on their current partnerships, funding/capitalization related advice, exit strategy.
Advisory work in ed tech, FMCG, retail, e-commerce.
Aviva Plc – Advised on impact of global restructuring on Indian joint venture.
Advising an Indian life insurance company on its bancassurrance distribution agreements.
Swiss Re Insurance Company Limited – Advising an offshore reinsurance company on its investment and exit from Indian third-party administrators.
Assisting an Indian insurance company, being one of the final three bidders to an RFP issued by a public sector bank seeking corporate agency tie-up and equity participation in life insurance companies. This involved advice on various aspects of structuring the tie-up with the bank, the term sheet to be signed with the bank and analyzing the impact of its existing joint venture with an Indian pharma company on the transaction.
Advised a food and manufacturing company in the UK on foreign direct investments into a rice mill manufacturing unit in the Special Economic Zone in India and tax incentives available to such SEZ’s in India.
Advising the foreign joint venture partner of an Indian insurance company on appointment of CEO in the Indian JV, structuring payouts to such CEO by the foreign partner in light of regulatory constraints and claw back options available to the foreign partner for such payouts.
Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation (SPIC) – Advised on specific aspects of restructuring of debt. Advising various group companies on commercial contracts.
Amit Mehra (Reuters Market Light Information Services Private Limited) – Spin off, of an existing Indian entity combined with a management buyout founded by private equity investment. Advised the founder and CEO on the management buyout including structuring the transaction from a regulatory and tax perspective. Drafting and negotiating the SSA, SHA, the management contract and other transaction documents.
Advised on structured credit facility by an overseas company to an Indian cement manufacturing company, global restructuring by the parent company and related aspects.
GuarantCo / Frontier Capital Markets – Advised on a credit enhancement of Indian rupee facilities, related documentation.
Ozone Networks – Advised on the PE investment by Access Industries Limited into Ozone. Drafted and negotiating transaction documents and assisted with the closing of the transaction.
Advised a leading private equity player on several of its investment and exits.
Shruti is a partner based in the Delhi office of Khaitan Legal Associates, a full service law firm committed to forging a new era in the practice and service of law. She heads the Delhi Office and leads the TMT, Start up and Data Protection practices for the firm. She is also part of the finance practice
Her area of expertise lies in commercial litigation and disputes relating to commercial contracts, shareholder issues, infrastructure, joint ventures, power and construction projects and commercial financing transactions. Smiti has also been extensively involved in cases relating to insolvency from the very onset of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and has been advising and representing creditors, debtors, Resolution Professionals & Liquidators before the National Company Law Tribunal / National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. Smiti has been part of several landmark and market leading cases on insolvency.
He started his career in the insurance industry with New India Assurance Co Ltd in 1977 and has worked in various fields of general insurance before he joined IRDA in 1996. During his tenure at IRDA (March 1996 to November 2010) including a brief stint of deputation to the PFRDA, he led the IRDA team in formative years to establish the Indian regulatory systems, rules and regulations. He has also extensively travelled abroad for training and study of foreign jurisdictions in the fields of financial and insurance supervision. He has represented IRDA on various committees internally and to the Government including other regulatory bodies.
Prabodh Chander played an important part in different departments and functions of IRDA inter alia including (a) licensing of insurance carriers and all other insurance intermediaries (b) practical interpretation and application of insurance law – regulations and guidelines; (c) functional areas of general insurance including re-insurance and regulatory oversight of the life insurance business; and (d) regulatory supervision and guidance.
Prabodh Chander continues to be associated with different causes of the insurance industry and lends his expertise as an independent consultant to insurers, intermediaries and representative bodies in the insurance sector. He divides his time between New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
Prior to foraying in independent practice, Abbas spent four years with a leading national accounting and tax firm of India.
Abbas has extensive experience in bringing sound technical knowledge to assignments whether compliance or advisory and meeting client’s objectives.
He has conducted various internal and external presentations / trainings on technical topics and his articles have been published by leading journals and media houses such as Taxmann, Taxsutra, Bloomberg Quint and International tax review.
In another internationally reputed law firm, Manish has handled various corporate and real estate matters including amalgamation of companies, advising on sale and purchase of immovable properties, title investigation of flats and land, advising various land owners/housing societies and developers in development/re-development projects, due-diligence for private equity investments, leasing / licensing documentation of commercial and residential properties etc.
Since April 2011, Manish commenced independent practice with an aim to carve a niche for himself in the legal industry. Manish is actively advising various clients on real estate matters involving title investigation of immovable properties, sale/purchase of properties, legal due diligence, advising on development control regulations, TDR, FSI / FAR, zoning, conversion of land, stamp duty aspects, structuring of deals, documentation, etc. by providing his Clients with solutions for all legal issues involving their real estate.
