Corporate & Companies Act
Corporate advisory across the full Companies Act 2013 framework, including M&A, joint ventures, governance, and shareholder arrangements.
The Companies Act, 2013 is the spine of every Indian corporate decision. Boards, promoters, minority shareholders, and KMP are each governed by obligations that did not exist before the 2013 reset, and that have been progressively tightened by SEBI, MCA, and the Supreme Court since. The firm advises on the full architecture — incorporation, governance, board advisory, M&A, joint ventures, private equity, family business, and shareholder disputes — both as ongoing counsel and on transactions.
What the firm does in this practice
Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures
Term sheets, due diligence, definitive documentation (SPA, SHA, SSA), regulatory approvals, conditions precedent, closing, and post-closing integration. Both buy-side and sell-side; both control and minority transactions; both Indian and cross-border.
Shareholder agreements and governance
Shareholder agreements, articles of association, board composition, reserved matters, anti-dilution, drag-and-tag, ROFR/ROFO, exit mechanics, and the deadlock structures that determine whether a JV survives a fall-out.
Private equity and venture capital
Term sheet advisory, structuring, definitive documentation, board protections, ratchet, liquidation preference, and exit architecture for investors and founders across seed, growth, and PE rounds.
Companies Act compliance and board advisory
Board minutes, statutory registers, KMP advisory, related-party transactions under Section 188, secretarial standards, audit-committee functioning, and director duties under Section 166.
Family business and succession structures
Family settlements, family constitutions, trusts, holding-company restructuring, generational transfer, and the dispute architecture that surfaces when a family business changes hands.
Public-listed company advisory
SEBI LODR compliance, disclosure obligations, insider trading framework under SEBI (PIT) Regulations, takeover code under SEBI (SAST), and continuous obligations of listed entities.
Shareholder disputes and oppression and mismanagement
Sections 241–242 petitions before the NCLT, oppression and mismanagement claims, derivative actions, class action under Section 245, and appeals before NCLAT and the Supreme Court.
The view from the firm
Corporate documentation in India is over-drafted and under-architected. Term sheets are signed before the parties have agreed what the deal actually is. Shareholder agreements run to 80 pages and still leave the most consequential question — how the parties exit if it stops working — unaddressed. The firm reads every corporate document as the deal’s last word on what the parties intended. If a clause does not say what is needed, it will be read against the party that drafted it. If the deal is silent on a question, the silence will be filled by a court that does not know the parties.
The 2013 Companies Act has been the subject of more amendments than perhaps any major commercial statute in India. Each amendment narrows what was previously permissive, codifies what was previously implicit, and creates a new compliance trigger for boards. Compliance under the 2013 Act is therefore not a static requirement; it is a moving target. The firm’s corporate practice is built around continuous awareness of the next amendment, not just the current text.
M&A in India fails more often at integration than at signing. Due diligence missed something. A representation was qualified in a way the buyer did not appreciate. A consent was not actually obtained. A regulatory threshold was crossed without a filing. The firm’s M&A practice gives equal weight to the post-closing months as to the pre-closing weeks — because the work the buyer wishes had been done shows up only after closing.
Deeper references
This page is informational. It is not advertisement or solicitation. The firm does not offer free consultations or invite engagement through this page. For correspondence relating to a specific matter, Use of this site is subject to the Bar Council of India Rule 36 framework.