AZB, Khaitan, Morgan Lewis on India's biggest IPL deal: Aditya Birla-TOI snaps up RCB for ₹16,660 crore

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 Partner Shishir Vayttaden and Kartikeya Prakash. The other team members included Surbhi Ajitsaria, Deepali Menghwani, Harishankar Raghunath, Pragyansh Nigam, Tawishi Beria, Samkit Jain, Jahnavi Yalavarthi, Modit Mendiratta and Ambreen Rahman.

Khaitan Partners Aashutosh Sampat and Rohan Shrivastava acted for the Times Group along with Saloni Mehta Bhandawat, Aman Nayar and 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, Malika Nandkeolyar, and Rebecca Cardoso

Litigation-related analysis and advice: Manavendra Mishra and Parimal Kaushik

Labour law aspects: Vinay Joy, and Srishti Ramakrishnan and Aditya Nair

Data Privacy: Supratim Chakraborty, and Shramana Dwibedi

Antitrust: Anisha Chand and Armaan Gupta

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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