J. Sagar Associates (JSA) advised and assisted Ares SSG, a leading Asia- Pacific alternative asset manager, as the successful resolution applicant in the debt resolution of Altico Capital India Limited (“Altico”). Altico was undergoing an out of court lender driven debt resolution process. Lenders led by State Bank of India had formed a committee and initiated the resolution plan. In all, about 27 lenders have exposure to Altico. Ares SSG (through the entities identified by it) has acquired all outstanding loans and investments from Altico as part of the debt resolution process. This deal marks the first resolution of a stressed NBFC outside the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, through a lender driven process and represents Ares SSG’s single largest investment in India till date.
JSA team comprised Lead Partner – Aashit Shah, Partner – Utsav Johri, Principal Associates – Megha Saraf and Avantika Govil and Associates – Devika Vasandani and Ronak Jain.
Additionally, Principal Associates – Pallavi Banerjee and Fatema Kachwalla, Senior Associates – Ronak Thakkar and Nakul Sonejee and Associates – Neelasha Nemani and Ahsan Allana also assisted in the due diligence. Associate – Sahil Unadkat assisted with closing of the transaction. Partner – Vaibhav Choukse, Principal Associate – Ela Bali, and Associates – Nripi Jolly and Aditi Khanna provided preliminary Competition law advise.
Aditi is a competition / antitrust lawyer, who recently completed her post-graduation.
Ela is a partner with JSA’s competition law practice with 10 years of experience. She represents and advises clients across different sectors on enforcement and merger control matters before the Competition Commission of India (CCI), National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Delhi and Bombay High Court, and the Supreme Court of India (SC).
Nripi specialises in competition law. She has advised on several complex merger control proceedings in various sectors such as healthcare and life sciences, banking and finance, technology, chemical, petroleum and natural gas and infrastructure and is currently involved in several behavioural proceedings before the CCI, NCLAT, High Court and Supreme Court.
Utsav is a banking partner in the Mumbai office of the firm. His practice focus on structured finance, acquisition finance, leveraged buyouts, cross border finance, real estate financing, debt restructuring and debt capital markets.
Vaibhav is heading the Firm’s Competition Law Practice and has been practicing competition law since its inception in India. He focuses on complex enforcement/ litigation and merger control cases and represents and advises clients on a broad range of competition law issues spanning across several sectors.