Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Hosts Thought Leadership Initiative 2024: Focus On Deals & Investment Trends In Tamil Nadu

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Hosts Thought Leadership Initiative 2024: Focus on Deals & Investment Trends in Tamil Nadu

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, founded on a century of legal achievements, is among India’s leading full-service law firms. Their mission is to enable business by providing solutions as trusted advisors through excellence, responsiveness, innovation, and collaboration. They have Pan India presence.

Marking the 8th Anniversary of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas office in Chennai the firm organised its annual “Thought Leadership Initiative” on October 23, 2024, at the Leela Palace, Chennai. The event was half a day session post lunch which focused on Deals and Investment Trends in the State of Tamil Nadu highlighting the key driving factors for foreign direct investment into the State, Private Equity and Venture Capital players deal making and fund-raising trends, deep diving into debt funding and investments into the Real Estate sector, guarding against M&A disputes and presenting insights to Tamil Nadu companies preparing for IPO. The conference had over 250 guests from leading corporations in Chennai attended the conference.

Book Release: Doing Business in India 2024 published by the law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas was also released by the Chief Guest, Paul Arul and Guest of Honour Advocate General P.S. Raman.

The key dignitaries at the event included Shardul Shroff, Executive Chairman of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Pallavi Shroff, Managing Partner, and Dorothy Thomas, Partner and Head of the Chennai office. Among the chief guests were Advocate General P.S. Raman, who served as the Guest of Honour, and Paul Arun, Senior Vice President of Guidance Tamil Nadu, who was the Chief Guest. The keynote address was delivered by Vanita Venugopal, CEO of Tamil Nadu Technology (iTNT) Hub

The thought leadership conference was carefully designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and networking and will benefit Promoters, General Counsels, CFO’s, Bankers and Real Estate Investment Management leaders and key officers. We have aimed to keep this conference crisp, targeting topics that will be of key interest to companies and businesses operating in Chennai or investing into the State of Tamil Nadu.

Panel Discussions

Foreign Direct Investment into the State of Tamil Nadu

The panel comprised distinguished experts, including Dorothy Thomas, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Sri Ramya Yadavalli, Vice President of Guidance Tamil Nadu, SL Narayanan, Group CFO of Sun TV, Orlando Casares, Legal Representative of Bray International, Rohini Manian, CEO of Global Adjustments, and Sabuj D Choudhury, VP Legal and Managing Director of Flextronics.

Tamil Nadu has for long been a preferred investment destination and the FDI inflows over the last several years stand testament to the same. With the recent execution of several MOUs totaling over 7600 crores of investments, the Government has taken a leap forward to prioritize and promote the State’s positioning on the global map. The industriousness of the people of the State and the infrastructural developments have resulted in rapid industrial growth in the State earning its bustling cities sobriquets such as Detroit of Asia, Electronics Manufacturing Hub of India, Gateway of South India, Manchester of South India, Steel City and the like.

What continues to pique the interests of foreign investors in the State? What is the current Industrial Policy and incentives / subsidies offered by the State to make investments more attractive? Where does the State rank in the ease of doing business? These are questions were answered by the esteemed panel members through their thought-provoking discussion on the subject.

Private Equity and Venture Capital Pulse – Deal Making & Fund Raising Trends

The panel included Sarika Raichur, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Manav Nagaraj, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Hanuman Joshi, Chief Financial Officer of Casagrand Group, C. Venkat Subramanyam, Founder and Director of Veda Corporate Advisers, Aviral Jain, Managing Director of Kroll Advisory, and Aditya Bhandari, Partner and Regional Director Asia Equity at Incofin.

The accelerated pace of innovation in India and the promise of India being the pioneer in sectors of the future has spawned deal making in India by private equity funds, venture capital funds, family offices and other investors. While on the one side, India has seen a meteoric rise of investments in the listed space with fanfare, the other side has seen a rapid, yet relatively quieter, investment thrust in the equally promising unlisted space amid promising exit opportunities in the luminous capital markets.

The panelist presented an insightful discussion on the factors that will govern deal making in 2024-25, regulatory framework, private equity, venture capital trends, deal dynamics, exits and tax considerations.

Unraveling Debt Funding & Investments in Real Estate (Opportunities for Investors,Lenders and Developers)

The panel featured Aarthi Lakshminarayanan, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Jay Gandhi, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Jerry Kingsley, Head of Capital Markets & Strategy at JLL, Rupesh Mishra, Assistant Vice President – Legal at CapitaLand, Tej Reddy, Director at Nu-tech Group, and Arjun Sankar, Head of AIF Credit at Sundaram Alternates.

The real estate sector in Tamil Nadu is staring at an accelerating growth with the market booming not only in residential and commercial sectors but also in the industrial warehouses and logistics, data centers and industrial parks space, which are on the rise. As per recent market reports, the debt market in Indian real estate is projected to present a financing opportunity worth Rs 14 trillion (US$170 billion) between 2024-2026, driven by growth in construction finance and lease rental discounting (LRD). To support the developers at different stages, innovative and customized funding structures are needed, offering significant opportunities to investors and lenders.

The developers also explored raising funds from the listed market by launching real estate investment trusts (REITS) which allow participation of the public with limited capital deployment, NCD’s and project finance.

The panel members embarked on a deep dive into the nuances of debt funding and investments in real estate and the legal framework surrounding them. The experts touch upon the importance of transaction documents and conducting title due diligence on immovable assets to mitigate risks, ensure better valuation and readiness while creating security interest over immovable assets.

Navigating M&A Disputes & Shareholder Disputes

The panel included Shruti Khanijow, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Arun C Mohan, Counsel at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Joseph Durkin, Senior Vice President at Burford Capital, G Amba Prasad, Vice President & Head Legal at Larsen & Toubro, Padmanabhan PA, President & Group CFO at Rane Group, and TA Srinivasen, Head Legal at Ramachandra Group.

Investments come with their fair share of risks and pitfalls, and a seasoned investor sticks their neck out being fully aware that they may turn into the mythical headless horseman. While losing one’s head over investment risks is nothing to write about, losing one’s precious time, effort and resources by getting entangled in a legal limbo can bog down even the bravehearted. The types of disputes in a joint stock company are numerous. The disputes may be between investors (or) between promoters (or) between promoters and investors (or) between investors, promoters and the company itself. Every once in a while, the acrimony within a company is on full public display and it is evidently noticeable that the consequence of such acrimony is a prolonged legal battle putting an excessive strain on the purse of all involved and a needless distraction from the initially conceived common objective.

The experts provided pointers on how shareholder disputes can be minimized, if not entirely avoided, allowing for resources to be deployed for growing companies and not letting them become victims of a contractual failing.

Trending - Road Map for TN Companies Preparing for IPO

Sayantan Dutta, Capital Markets Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, highlighted that starting early is key for a successful IPO and companies in Tamil Nadu are dynamically looking to open their paths to capital. Seeing things from the perspective of a company intending to go public, the listed space offers the opportunity to benefit from public funding and provide an opportunity for its promoters and early investors to reap the benefits of their efforts. The lure of the listed space is quite compelling, but entering the listed space brings with it legally mandated additional compliances. The listed space is a highly regulated one, and is rightfully so, with the market regulator, SEBI, keeping a watchful eye on companies to protect the investors. Although the rules and regulations of the market regulator may make listing sound like an unsolvable labyrinth, our panel members will demystify and delineate the path to go public by providing useful and simplified pointers. The capital markets expert presented insights on preparing a company for an IPO, structuring the IPO, maximizing the value of your IPO and navigating the IPO process.

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