United Spirits Limited has entered into definitive agreements for the sale of the 100% equity stake held in its wholly owned subsidiary Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL) to a consortium comprising Aditya Birla Group, The Times of India Group, Bolt Ventures, and Blackstone’s perpetual private equity strategy, BXPE for a total consideration of ₹166.6 billion in an all cash transaction.
AZB & Partners advised United Spirits Limited on this transaction and the team was led by Senior Partner Roxanne Anderson along with Senior Associates Apoorv Chaturvedi, Yashaswi Rohra, and Devanshi Patel and Associates Zunhaid Tapia, Parvathy Suresh, Shreya Somani and Siri Harish.
Khaitan & Co advised the acquiring Consortium and the team was led by Partners Shishir Vayttaden and Kartikeya Prakash. The other team members included Surbhi Ajitsaria (Principal Associate), Deepali Menghwani (Principal Associate), Associates Harishankar Raghunath, Pragyansh Nigam, Tawishi Beria, Samkit Jain, Jahnavi Yalavarthi, Modit Mendiratta and Ambreen Rahman.
Partners Aashutosh Sampat and Rohan Shrivastava acted for the Times Group along with Saloni Mehta Bhandawat (Principal Associate), Associates Aman Nayar, Shrey Chhabra, Pavitra Khaitan, Bimbita Kateel, Amogh Pareek and Jay Shah.
Additionally, the following specialist counsel advised the consortium:
Branding and Intellectual Property-related matters: Nirupam Lodha (Partner), Malika Nandkeolyar (Senior Associate), Rebecca Cardoso (Associate) and Swadheena Joardar (Associate)
Corporate Diligence and Execution Support: Bimbita Kateel (Senior Associate), Amogh Pareek (Associate), Jay Shah (Associate), Modit Mendiratta (Associate), Radhika Naik (Associate) and Ambreen Rahman (Associate)
Litigation-related analysis and advice: Manavendra Mishra (Partner) and Parimal Kaushik (Associate)
Labour Law: Vinay Joy (Partner), Srishti Ramakrishnan (Counsel) and Aditya J Nair (Senior Associate)
Data Privacy: Supratim Chakraborty (Partner) and Shramana Dwibedi (Senior Associate);
Antitrust: Anisha Chand (Partner) and Armaan Gupta (Senior Associate).
Touchstone Partners advised Diageo plc, the parent company of the seller United Spirits Limited, on certain aspects of the deal.
The transaction team consisted of Yashasvi Mohanram (Partner), Vaishnavi Sankar (Senior Associate), Associates Niharika Rozwal, Achint Jain and Nakul Chandra.
Morgan Lewis acted for Bolt Ventures.
Royal Challengers Sports owns and operates Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchises that participate in the Indian Premier League and Women’s Premier League.
Upon completion of this transaction, the consortium will, through its ownership of RCSPL, acquire the rights to own and operate the IPL and WPL franchise.
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