KS Partners boosts corporate advisory vertical with former ALMT lawyer Preeti Balwani Ties-up with former PWC Director Timmy Kandhari

KS Partners is on an expansion mode after recently moving to a bigger office space in Indiabulls Finance Centre in Mumbai. The firm has enhanced its corporate advisory vertical with former ALMT Legal Senior Associate, Preeti Balwani joining the Mumbai office as a salaried Partner.

KS Partners has also tied up with Sapphires Professional Services, a boutique financial advisory services firm headed by Timmy Kandhari to boost its corporate advisory practice.

Preeti will be heading the corporate advisory vertical and is the sole partner in the Mumbai office with a team of six lawyers. Prior to Preeti’s joining, Managing Partner Umesh Khaitan was dividing his time between Delhi and Mumbai and will continue to do so.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Preeti Balwani said, “Our focus in the Mumbai office is to consolidate our existing strategy and formulate a plan going forwards to expand our practice. We along with Sapphire would offer holistic services in the transactional advisory space”.

Her areas of practice include corporate and commercial laws with special focus on M&A, Joint Ventures, Private Equity, and Infrastucture Projects. She worked at ALMT for more than six years before leaving to join KS Partners.

Prior to joining ALMT, she was working with Udwadia & Udeshi. She is a graduate of the Indian Law Society, Pune and did her LL.M. from University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Timmy Kandhari has more than two decades of experience in investment banking, corporate tax, domestic tax and business advisory services. Prior to setting up Sapphire, he was Executive Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, India. After taking an early retirement, he set up Sapphire about a year ago.

Talking about the tie-up with Sapphire, Managing Partner Umesh Khaitan said, “We would like to be a one-stop shop for the clients providing corporate and business advisory ”.

“We will continue focusing on our banking and insurance practice. The government has opened up the banking licence sector and since we have a lot of experience in this sector, we would give professional advice to corporate houses or groups in obtaining banking licence. We also plan to strengthen our insurance team in Mumbai to service the insurance industry there”, added Khaitan.

Talking about the new office space in Mumbai, Khaitan said, “The new office space will provide improved facilities for the increasing number of clients and the lawyers“

The firm now has total 11 partners across its Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore offices and a team of 55 lawyers.