Anuj is a corporate and M&A lawyer whose practice centres on advising foreign companies doing business in India. He advises on cross-border acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and general corporate matters, taking transactions through the full cycle, from structuring and due diligence to regulatory and exchange control approvals, contract negotiation, and closing and post-closing implementation. He also advises on asset transactions and on business transfers, including slump sales, carve-outs of business undertakings, internal reorganisations and related employee transfers, and acts on mergers and demergers implemented through schemes of arrangement.
He advises multinational groups on establishing and scaling large global capability centres (GCCs) and back-office operations in India. His work includes entity choice and structuring, incorporation and licensing, intra-group service arrangements, and the corporate, exchange control and regulatory compliance requirements that arise as these centres grow from establishment to full operation.
Anuj’s command of India’s foreign exchange management regime is a particular advantage for clients involved in cross-border transactions. He advises on foreign direct investment, overseas investment, cross-border trade transactions, repatriation of funds and wider exchange control compliance, alongside corporate governance, contract review and day-to-day operational support. He also advises foreign parent companies on the grant of ESOPs, RSUs, SARs and phantom stock to their employees and contractors in India, and on the related Indian exchange control, tax and reporting requirements.
Anuj heads the banking and finance practice of the firm’s Bangalore office. He has particular experience in external commercial borrowings, acting for both foreign lenders and Indian borrowers on the regulatory, structuring and documentation issues arising in these transactions. His wider finance practice covers syndicated and bilateral lending, project and acquisition finance, working capital and trade finance, debt restructuring, and insolvency and bankruptcy matters.
He co-heads the firm’s fintech practice, advising payment aggregators and gateways, prepaid payment instrument issuers, lending platforms, banks and technology companies. His work spans payment systems and card network regulation, digital lending and co-lending, outsourcing and technology partnerships, account aggregation, data and localisation requirements, KYC and anti-money laundering obligations, virtual digital assets and cryptocurrency-related businesses (including exchange platforms), and licensing applications and regulatory engagement.
Across his practice, Anuj is known for practical, commercially grounded and strategic advice, coupled with close attention to detail on complex transactions and regulatory matters.
• Assisted multiple Fortune Global 500 companies in setting up and scaling their Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India.
• Assisted one of the largest privately held US conglomerates with the acquisition of an Indian entity and the post-acquisition internal restructuring, including its merger with the group’s existing Indian subsidiary.
• Assisted a global consumer data and market intelligence company with the transfer of its Indian assets and employees to an Indian purchaser as part of its global sale, including all Indian law compliances and the transaction documents for the asset sale and employee transfer.
• Assisted a global semiconductor company with a slump sale of its Indian business undertaking, including all transaction documents and closing formalities.
• Assisted a Canadian hydraulics manufacturer, a portfolio company of a leading Canadian private equity firm, with its joint venture with an Indian hydraulics company, including the share purchase agreement, shareholders’ agreement, other transaction documents and closing.
• Assisted a US-based global investment banking and advisory firm with establishing its India operations through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, including structuring and the related transaction documents.
• Assisted multiple foreign and Indian companies with acqui-hire transactions in India, including structuring, the transaction documents, the transfer and onboarding of key employees, and related Indian law compliances.
• Assisted a global power and energy management solutions company with its joint venture with two leading Japanese automotive and industrial groups for the development of electric vehicle chassis, including the transaction documents and closing.
• Assisted the selling shareholders in relation to the acquisition of a leading e-commerce and product data management company by a top private equity firm.
• Assisted a biotechnology company in relation to an external commercial borrowing availed from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
• Assisted an Indian impact investing firm (NBFC) with respect to multiple external commercial borrowings availed from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
• Assisted a group of top private banks with a syndicated financing amounting to INR 7,500 million to a large Indian mining company.
• Assisted a US-based water services company in relation to an external commercial borrowing availed from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation amounting to USD 12.5 million.
• Advised one of the world’s leading online travel platforms on the regulatory treatment of its complex payment flows for Indian customers.
• Advised one of the largest US banking and financial services institutions on Indian banking, financial regulatory, anti-money laundering, foreign exchange and marketing laws in connection with a proposed cross-border lead-referral and customer-onboarding arrangement with an Indian bank for customers relocating from India to the United States.
• Advised a global data streaming and cloud infrastructure company in relation to the application of India’s financial regulatory and outsourcing framework to cloud infrastructure, managed data streaming, and SaaS-based technology services provided to regulated financial institutions in India.
• Advised two Indian cryptocurrency exchanges and an international cryptocurrency exchange on Indian regulations in relation to cryptocurrencies and payments.
• Assisted various banks and NBFCs in launching banking products.
• Assisted one of the world’s leading virtual digital asset/cryptocurrency security and infrastructure companies with the offering and sale of cryptocurrency hardware wallets and the offering of a software application for managing personal cryptocurrency portfolios.
• Advised one of the world’s leading digital asset and blockchain infrastructure companies in relation to the application of India’s legal and regulatory framework to gold-backed digital assets.
• Advised various fintech entities on payment regulations in India.
• Conducted a lecture for the students of Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University on Corporate Law in February 2025.
• Speaker/ Panelist at Indo- American Chamber of Commerce Discussion organized in February 2024 in Bangalore on “Doing Business in USA”.
• Speaker/ Panelist at Indo- American Chamber of Commerce 17th Indo-US Economic Summit in September 2021.
• Speaker/ Panelist at the 2nd Annual Debt Syndication India Summit 2019, held at Mumbai.
• Conducted a session on "Legal Framework in Fintech Space" organised by NUMA and Kotak Mahindra Bank, at Bangalore in 2017.
• Conducted a session on "Impact of Corporate Laws on Banking Transactions" for the entire in-house legal team of Federal Bank at their annual retreat held in Bangalore in 2017.
