The best testament for Veena has been a remark from her Client who said ‘Veena is one of the few banking and finance partners who has experience in restructuring as well, and that’s what sets her apart from most senior banking partners. Veena is the one that pieces it all together and guides you to the right place’. Additionally, Clients regularly praise Veena for her ‘firm grasp of banking as well as applicable regulations with her vast experience in derivatives being highly valued’. She has the ability to ‘provide commercial inputs over and above the legal advice’ and to ‘offer alternative solutions’. Clients describe her as ‘proactive, approachable, responsive and timely, good technical skills, very professional, very sharp and relationship driven’.

Veena has worked at Juris Corp for over a decade across varied areas of practice impacting banks and financial institutions and at ICICI Bank mainly for its offshore operations. While at ICICI, she seconded with Davis Polk and Wardwell in New York primarily to set up the New York branch of ICICI.

Read Less-

• Financing, including debt capital, private credit and structured products

Veena has significant experience in cross border financing, acquisition financing, structured credit, private credit, trade finance, securitisation and receivable financing structures. Clients for these include marquee private credit players, foreign banks, Indian banks, foreign portfolio investors and alternate investment funds. Indicative transactions led by Veena include:

• • Private credit by Edelweiss group to the Shapoorji Pallonji Group for the largest private credit deal in India
  • Private credit by Kotak group in relation to refinancing of all the exposures of Lalit Group of hotels, etc.
  • Structured acquisition financing for Carlyle Group in relation to its stake in Yes Bank Limited, Hexaware Group, etc.
  • Financing of CDC Group in its acquisition of Sahyadri Hospitals.

• Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy

Veena has significant experience in restructuring under the erstwhile Reserve Bank of India guidelines (CDR/ JLF / SDR / S4A/ Feb 12), the ever evolving Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and the existing Restructuring framework for Banks, ARCs, FPIs and other regulated entities. Veena has specifically advised on restructuring strategy, pre-litigation measures and litigation. She has been the lead partner representing banks in restructuring from a strategy perspective for cases adjudicated through international arbitrations, NCLT, DRT and other civil proceedings in India. Some of the key mandates include:

• • Group of Distressed Funds and Foreign Portfolio Investorsin the restructuring of Jayaswal Neco Industries Limited, outside IBC through an innovative Asset Reconstruction Company structure, where the ARC led a consortium of 10 FPI entities / stressed  / hedge funds.
  • Altico Capital Limitedin relation to its restructuring outside IBC.
  • Foreign bankin enforcement of and recognition to the first priority financing transaction, outside and within the IBC framework, involving the GVK group.
  • Brookfieldin a pioneer transaction in the hospitality and restructuring space (acquisition of Leela Hotels by Brookfield).
  • DBS Bank Ltd.in a pioneer transaction in the hospitality and restructuring space (acquisition of Hyatt Pune by SAMHI Hotels).
  • Foreign bankson strategy to be adopted for their offshore debt in light of the IBC. Lenders include Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, DZ Bank, DBS Bank, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., etc. and the accounts pertain to the large NPA cases such as Bhushan Steel, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Sintex Industries, Monnet Industries, Amtek group, Alok Industries, etc.
  • Resolution Professional for Alok Industries, one of the top 12 cases under IBC.

• Derivatives and Payment Systems

Veena has significant experience in this niche area of practice and is the Partner responsible for setting up this practice in the Firm. CCIL, foreign banks and select Indian insurance companies consider Veena as the go-to person for derivatives and clearing corporation related issues. She has been the lead partner in the following transactions:

• • Assisting CCIL in its various initiatives to implement global standards for clearing and other central counterparty related issues.
  • Industry opinion on netting and collateral for derivative transactions (including through CSAs) for International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) till 2016.
  • ISDA documentation, advisory and litigation strategy related work for OTC derivative transactions for various Indian insurance companies, foreign banks in India and other market makers.

• Precious Metals

Veena has significant experience in the specialised practice of precious metal financing and regulatory scrutiny (including litigation strategy). Foreign banks consider Veena as the go-to person for commodity financing structures. She has been the lead partner in the following transactions:

• • Foreign banks including Emirates NBD, Bank of Montreal, Citibank N.A., Bank of Nova Scotia and ICBC Standard Bank PLC in relation to transfer of title and risk on precious metals, insolvency of the importer and other regulatory parameters involved in export of precious metals into India and capacity and authority of banks and corporates in India to deal in various kind of precious metals.
  • Assisting in standardizing the entire suite of documentation for Banks in relation to their bullion lending business in India.

Read Less-