CAM, TTA, JSA, Freshfields & Ors. lead on Rosneft acquisition of Essar Oil stake for $12.9 billion

Russian oil giant Rosneft is buying a 49 per cent stake in Essar Oil. European commodities trader Trafigura and Russian fund UCP consortium will also pick up a 49 per cent stake in Essar, leaving existing promoters – the Ruia family – with a 2 per cent stake, reported MoneyControl..The deal is valued at USD 12.9 billion, making it the largest ever FDI deal into India and the largest outbound acquisition by Russia..DealRosneft acquires 49% stake in Essar Oil, Trafigura, UCP acquire 49% stakeValueRs. 8600 crore ($12.9 billion)Deal TypeM&ASectorInfrastructureLaw FirmsCyril Amarchand Mangaldas – Essar Oil (Indian); Freshfields – Essar (English); TTA – Rosneft (Indian); Linklaters – Rosneft (English); JSA – Trafigura (Indian); Slaughter & May – Trafigura consortiumPartnersCAM – Cyril Shroff, Amita Choudary Katragadda, Ravi Kumar, Anchal Dhir; Freshfields – Samuel Newhouse; TTA – Kunal Thakore; Linklaters – Savi Hebbur; JSA – Sandeep Mehta, Srabonee Roy..Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Talwar Thakore and Associates and J. Sagar Associates are the Indian counsel on the deal, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May acted as international counsel..Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted for Essar Oil with a team led by Managing Partner Cyril Shroff along with Delhi Partner Amita Choudary Katragadda, and Mumbai-based corporate Partners Ravi Kumar and Anchal Dhir..New Delhi-based tax partners SR Patnaik and Mekhla Anand advised on taxation matters, whereas Mumbai based competition law partners Bharat Budholia and Anshuman Sakle advised on the competition law aspect. This deal also had New Delhi and Mumbai-based dispute resolution Partners, Percival Billimoria, Indranil Deshmukh and Kapil Arora advising on litigation aspects, whereas, the financing aspects of this deal was looked at by Mumbai and New Delhi-based financing Partners L Viswanathan, Pranav Sharma, Dhananjay Kumar and Jatinder Cheema. Intellectual Property aspects were handled by New Delhi based IP Partner Ranjan Negi..Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, London, advised Essar Oil on English Law matters with a team led by Partner Samuel Newhouse..Talwar Thakore Associates advised Rosneft and the team was headed by Partner Kunal Thakore, and included Managing Associate Tejas Adiga, and Associates Raghuveer Parthasarathy and Shivangi Paranjpe. Competition law expertise was provided by Vinod Dhall, Executive Chairman, Competition Law, Managing Associate Sonam Mathur, and Associate Avinash Amarnath..Linklaters acted as English counsel for Rosneft with a team led by London partner Savi Hebbur..J. Sagar Associates advised Trafigura with a team led by Partners Sandeep Mehta and Srabonee Roy..Slaughter and May advised the Trafigura-led consortium.