Puja Sondhi is a Partner with the General Corporate practice at the Firm with a focus on M&A/PE/VC.
Puja is a leading advisor with expertise in foreign investment and regulatory affairs, India market-entry strategy, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, PIPE deals, public M&A and corporate restructuring. Puja has successfully closed numerous complex, path-breaking and award-winning transactions requiring innovative structuring, regulatory expertise and a solution-oriented approach across diverse sectors.
She has developed a strong “emerging companies” practice, focused on growth capital, spanning a broad range of new-age businesses including inter alia retail & e-commerce, digital media, e-pharmacy, online gaming, mobility solutions, fintech, lifestyle & health. Puja has advised extensively on both founder/company mandates and investor mandates, having acted for Grofers, NewsCorp, Inshorts, IndiaMart, Norwest Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, IDFC Alternatives, International Finance Corporation, Raine group and QInvest.
Puja is recognised as a thought leader in the Retail & E-commerce sector, having advised industry bodies investors and investee companies on fundraising, structuring their business in compliance with evolving regulatory norms, obtaining regulatory approvals and on policy issues. Her clients have included Internet & Mobile Association of India, Grofers, Walmart, Flipkart, Snapdeal, IndiaMart, PropTiger and Bose, among others.
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She is an expert in joint ventures across their life cycle spanning formation, restructuring, shareholder disputes and exits across sectors, including joint ventures between Bharti group-Pizza Express, Biological E- GlaxoSmithKline, Visa Steel-Sun Coke, GE Oil & Gas-Triveni Engineering and Axiall-DCM Shriram.
Puja was instrumental in developing the Firm’s Japan practice, and has advised major Japanese trading houses like Sumitomo and Itochu. She has previously served on the Globalisation Committee of ACMA (Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India), and as an independent director in a publicly listed company.
Puja started her career as a corporate lawyer with the prestigious Wall Street law firm, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York. Previously, she was also the founding team member and first Chief Operating Officer of Teach For All (teachforall.org, a NY headquartered global not-for-profit launched by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair at the Clinton Global Initiative 2007), which is a global network working to advance educational equity across 50+ countries currently.
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- Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited on their acquisition of Retail & Wholesale Business and the Logistics & Warehousing Business of the Future Group and investment by Reliance in the residual Future Enterprises’ business, in a deal valued at US$ 3.6 billion. This is the largest deal involving the brick and mortar retail sector in India until date.
- Grofers, one of the largest online grocery players on its business structuring, corporate restructuring, regulatory matters and multiple fundraises aggregating to over US$ 470 million from inter alia SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Apoletto Asia, KTB Network, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, Bennet Coleman.
- Walmart on its US$ 16 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in Flipkart, making it the largest private equity and venture capital exit in India.
- Nestle Skin Health on the India leg of the US$ 10.1 billion global sale of its business to a consortium comprising EQT, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
- Norwest Venture Partners, a US$ 9.5 billion private equity fund, on multiple investments including in Veritas Finance (NBFC), SILA Solutions (facilities management), OFB Tech (online B2B).
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- Tikona Digital (portfolio company of Goldman Sachs, IFC, Everstone etc.) on its restructuring, spectrum trading transaction and US$245 million acquisition by Bharti Airtel.
- News Corp. on multiple transactions involving investments in, and acquisitions by its portfolio company Elara Technologies that operates makaan.com, proptiger.com and housing.com.
- Biological E on multiple transactions including its joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline for vaccine development, and its 100% acquisition of Akorn India.
- Den Networks on a US$ 110 million PIPE investment by Goldman Sachs. This is reported as the largest PE deal in Indian cable and television industry.
- Videocon Group on the US$ 2.475 billion sale of its interest in a Mozambique gas field to ONGC Videsh and Oil India. This is reported as India’s 2nd biggest energy acquisition.
- IFC on its INR 4500 million investment in Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited. This is one of the largest private equity growth capital investments in Indian primary healthcare.
- IDFC Alternatives Limited (now Global Infrastructure Partners) in its INR 5300 million, majority stake acquisition of Pristine Logistics, which operates private freight terminals and provides logistic solutions.
- Joint venture of Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service Company Limited and Sumitomo Corporation on its INR 2000 million acquisition of a car operating lease business from Carzonrent India.
- Avantha group and Hindustan Times group on complex corporate restructurings involving multiple court-approved schemes of amalgamation.
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A detailed experience statement can be shared on a confidential basis.
Professional Membership
- New York State Bar
- Delhi High Court Bar Association
Education
- B.A. LL.B, (Honors), National Law School of India University Bangalore, India
- LL.M, Degree (Corporate Law), New York University School of Law, New York, US (Hauser Global Scholar)