About

Piramal Finance is a global diversified business conglomerate with operations in several sectors including pharmaceuticals, health care information management, financial services, specialty glass packaging and real estate. The structure of the legal department at the company is overseen by president – legal Anand Vardhan who states that the team follows a ‘flat’ team structure where there are multiple members reporting in to Vardhan but have ‘their own team with independent responsibilities’. The team’s remit is a vast one and the approximately 15 lawyers in the financial services’ legal team include experts in funds, project finance, corporate finance, home finance, and similar disciplines. The team also has around seven lawyers handling other portfolios including real estate. Involved in the creation and implementation of various important projects in the recent past, the team has set up a dispute resolution, litigation, recovery practice, NPA “cell”, and a Bangalore regional legal hub to cater to Piramal’s growing business in southern India. It has also expanded its own remit ‘to cater to housing finance and SME finance as well amongst other new businesses being undertaken by Piramal Group’. Remaining ‘central’ to all business initiatives and playing a ‘pivotal’ role in all transaction closings, the team was crucial in structuring the important joint venture platform with Ivanhoe Cambridge. In addition, the team continues to play a key role in recovery litigation matters and has been instrumental in ensuring closure of such cases. The team also played a ‘significant’ role in the transfer of the entire debt portfolio from Piramal Enterprises Limited to Piramal Finance. The culture of the team places a large amount of emphasis on ‘passion, dedication and hard work’, and Vardhan states this is developed through various initiatives including ‘continuous self-audit and rigorous focus on quality and output, after taking into account, 360 degree customer feedback from various internal and external stakeholders’, evincing the team’s dedication to serving its business partners. Suprio Bose, Vivek Tewary and Shubham Khare are team members who are particularly known to ‘excel in their respective portfolios’ and are exemplars of the excellent legal and business support the team offers.