Areas of Service

Sovereign Wealth Fund and Pension Fund Practice

Brief Statement of Practice

Our Sovereign Wealth Funds (“SWF”) and Pension Funds (“PF”) practice caters to some of the largest SWFs and PFs in the world for their investments into India whether as direct investors or as limited partners in India focussed funds. Starting with devising legal and tax efficient structures for investments into India, leveraging tax benefits provided to SWFs and PFs, implementing effective partnerships with local strategic and financial sponsors and managing oversight of and exit from investments, we have helped most of the world’s leading SWFs and PFs navigate the Indian regulatory landscape. 

This practice group draws from our firm’s senior most experts from the Private Equity and M&A teams combining with our experts in the Tax and Funds practice to provide the highest quality of advice in shortest possible time, and covering all the bases of funds, tax, listed securities and foreign exchange regulations to ensure a service offering unmatched in the market. 

Nishith Desai Associates has consistently been recognized as a leading law firm for Private Equity by IFLR, Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Asia Law and other reputed institutions. We are specifically recognized for large and complex deals and have been pioneers of several new and innovative deal structures. NDA has been the proud recipient of the RSG - FT award as the ‘Most Innovative Indian Law Firm’ for five different years.

Scope of Services

INVESTMENT ADVISORY

Combining our expertise in the Private Equity and M&A practice areas with our specialization in various sectors including the infrastructure space, we have been the preferred advisors for various SWFs and PFs looking to invest in India. We provide end to end services including due diligence, legal and tax structuring, negotiations, documentation and implementation. 

INDUSTRY ADVISORY 

Based on an in-depth study of the industry, the opportunities, challenges and the commercial legal framework, we advise our clients on overall industry perspective, deep-dive studies on topical industry issues, entry strategies and comprehensive legal and tax structuring advisory to cater to incisive plans in particular industry sectors.

POLICY ADVOCACY

The research-based approach and in-depth domain knowledge in each of the industry verticals enables us to write and comment on the policy initiatives of the Government of India and the various State Governments. The firm recognizes its role as a responsible organization and contributes regularly to the successful and efficient policy formulation and implementation by raising significant policy issues and suggesting modifications from time to time to the regulators and Governments.

PROJECT ADVISORY AND PRE-CONCESSION ADVISORY

Given the popularity of the Indian infrastructure sector as an investment destination, project advisory is a core strength of the group. We deal with the full spectrum of project advisory, right from project conceptualization, pre-concession advisory, concession advisory, advisory during the life of the project and project dispute resolution. The firm renders legal and tax advisory services to the entire range of participants in a project, i.e. Government or public authority, project sponsors, lender/ investor consortium, contractors, subcontractors, project equipment suppliers and project service providers.

DISPUTES ADVISORY

The firm prides itself on its expertise in navigating and guiding clients through any disputed scenario. We combine our expertise in international commercial arbitration and bilateral investment treaty arbitration, with our in-depth knowledge of the Indian legal and regulatory environment to cover all bases. This area of practice is guided by the philosophy of trying to find an expeditious and efficient solution for the client in a cost-effective manner.

NDA Credentials in the Sovereign Wealth Funds and Pensions Funds Practice