Sakate Khaitan heads the corporate mergers and acquisitions, funds, restructuring and insurance practice at Khaitan Legal Associates. He also has over 11 years of litigation experience including joint venture disputes, tax disputes and disputes with regulators in the early part of his career.
Background and Early Memories
Sakate was born in Delhi, and his family originates in Rajasthan. His great grandfather migrated to Kolkata (West Bengal) in the early 1900s. No one from his direct lineage is a lawyer.
Sakate said,
“I am a boarding school product, having being packed off to St. Paul’s School, Darjeeling, when I was six. My time in Darjeeling brings back happy, fond memories. Almost all of my class stuck together for 10 years. We are like brothers. School has been instrumental in shaping who I am today.
My fondest memory is spending my summer break on a stilted log house on the banks of the river Teesta located in a tea estate my family owned at the time. The setting was idyllic with the Himalayan range as a back drop, forest cover on the opposite bank, the tea bushes and trees surrounding us. The sound of the river flowing was therapeutic.”
The legal high flyer recalled his biggest challenge as being having to deal with a broken hand and having to adjust to life back home after grade 10.
Higher Education
Sakate is an alumnus of the London Business School where he was a co-founder of the India Business Forum. IBF executives have appeared in this column over the years.
Sakate is dual qualified and is a member of the Bar Council of India. He is also as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. But he exclusively practices Indian law.
He said he was always fascinated with the legal profession. “Completing the Indian bar qualification was therefore natural. Having read for the MBA at London Business School and deciding to make London home, completing the English bar qualification was essential.
The most difficult thing was to balance work and studies. I joined a law firm as a full time paralegal prior to joining law school in 1990. It was fortuitous that school was from 0600 – 1000 every morning.”
Work challenges
Sakate advises clients on inward investments into India and India-focused cross border transactions. He helps deal with Indian rules and regulations.
What was difficult about building his practice?
He replied,
“The biggest challenges were to keep the morale of the team high, set up offices in two countries and at the same time ensure there is no slippage in client service.” It’s hard, he commented, “getting good people with the same ethos and culture of our firm. We have now been focusing and investing in our people in a significant manner. It takes a lot of effort to ensure excellence in work quality, superior client experience and a desirable work environment. In my field people are our biggest asset. Leading intelligent, hard working and dedicated people is always a challenge.”
Industry Trends
Sakate commented that in the insurance space, India has further liberalized the market by permitting higher levels of foreign investment and foreign reinsurers to set up branch offices in India.
“We are also seeing an increase in claims compared to last year. This sector has kept us really busy in the past year and I expect this trend to continue.”
While India experiences economic health, balance sheets of corporations and therefore banks are really stretched. We are seeing an increase in insolvency work (particularly in the commodity sector) as banks become more aggressive and are not hesitating to wipe out equity by converting debt. In the recent past we have seen Everstone Capital raise a distressed fund to capitalize on such opportunities.
Cross border deals have also increased. India has opened its borders to foreign direct investment and systematically demolished the license raj. This has led to increased inflow of capital and therefore, cross border deals. Similarly it has become easier for Indian entities to make acquisitions and/or establish a presence outside India. We have seen some marque deals in the not too distant past such as the acquisition of Corus by the Tata Group and Novelis by the Aditya Birla Group. This trend is likely to continue as corporations look to new markets for growth and Indian corporations look to acquire technology/brands to expand presence in western markets.”
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“The biggest challenges were to keep the morale of the team high, set up offices in two countries and at the same time ensure there is no slippage in client service.” Sakate Khaitan.
