Trilegal, CAM, Latham, AZB, Equilex, Macfarlanes advise on Mittal-Poonawalla consortium acquiring Rajasthan Royals for $1.65 bn

A consortium of the Mittal family, consisting of Lakshmi N Mittal, Aditya Mittal, and Adar Poonawalla, has signed definitive agreements to acquire Rajasthan Royals from Manoj Badale and the consortium, for an enterprise value of $1.65 billion.

Trilegal is advising the Mittal family on this acquisition along with Sapan Gupta, ArcelorMittal Group General Counsel and Kunal Vyas, Head of Tax and Legal at Mittal Investments UK Limited.

Trilegal’s role involved advising on structuring the transaction along with Indian legal and regulatory aspects; assisting the Lakshmi Mittal family with reviewing and finalising the transaction documents; conducting legal due diligence on Rajasthan Royals and coordinating with foreign counsels for local legal due diligence in Mauritius, South Africa and St. Lucia.

The Trilegal transaction team is led by Nishant Parikh (Partner), Arnav Dayal (Partner) and Mitali Halbe (Partner), with support from Niharika Choudhary (Counsel), Archit Gupta (Counsel), Averal Sibal (Senior Associate), Soham Munshi (Senior Associate) and Associates Akshaya Kapoor, Akshat Kabra and Aryan Grover.

The Trilegal Direct Tax Team advising on the matter is led by Komal Dani (Partner), with support from Ketki Redkar (Senior Associate) and Shyam Mangukiya (Associate).

The Trilegal Indirect Tax Team advising on the matter is led by Himanshu Sinha (Partner) and comprises Samyak Jain (Counsel) and Ishabh Verma (Senior Associate).

The Trilegal Intellectual Property Team advising on the matter is led by Kirti Balasubramanian (Partner), with supported from Rhythm Vijayvargiya (Associate).

The Trilegal Disputes Team is led by Mohit Rohatgi (Partner) and comprises Samriddhi Shukla (Senior Associate) and Anuj Aggarwal (Senior Associate).

The Trilegal White-Collar Crime Team advising on the matter is led by Kunal Gupta (Partner) and Shreya Kundu (Partner), with support from Shrishma Dandekar (Counsel), Juhi Bahl (Senior Manager), Chandan Dhand (Senior Consultant) and Gauri Shukla (Senior Associate).

The Trilegal Competition Team advising on the matter is led by Aparna Mehra (Partner), and comprises Krithika Ramesh (Counsel), Ishaan Chakrabarti (Senior Associate) and Sarthak Mishra (Senior Associate).

The Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Team advising on the matter is led by Jishnu Sanyal (Partner), with support from Janak Pradhan (Senior Associate) and Bevan Avil Pinto (Associate)

The Labour and Employment Team is led by Parvathy Tharamel (Partner), with support from Associates Koshy Mathen and Shreya Sharma.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is advising Adar Poonawalla n this acquisition.

The transaction team is led by Iqbal Khan (Partner) and Ashid Basheer (Partner), with support from Subbalaxmi S (Principal Associate), Shefali Murthy (Senior Associate), Associates Gunjan Singh, Raviraj Zinzuvadia, Mallika Bhaskar and Khushi Jaffar.

Swati Sharma (Partner, Head - Intellectual Property), with support from Andri Shukla (Senior Associate), advised on intellectual property aspects of the transaction.

Ankoosh K Mehta (Partner, Co-Head – White Collar & Investigation) advised on disputes aspects of the transaction.

Latham & Watkins is acting as international legal counsel for the buyer consortium.

AZB & Partners is advising Manoj Badale and the seller consortium on this transaction.

Equilex assisted the Sellers and target group members through all stages of bidding, diligence, preparation of data room, finalisation of transaction documents and negotiating and outlining the disclosures for Rajasthan Royals, Barbados Royals and Paarl Royals.

The transaction team was led by Deep Roy (Managing Partner), with assistance from Nupur Malde (Partner), Jyotí Singh (Associate Manager), Disha Mohanty (Associate Manager), Associates Aakanksha Rajput, Prerna Khatri and Anuj Lakhotiya.

Macfarlanes is acting as international legal counsel for the seller consortium.

Aside from the IPL team, Rajashtan Royals also owns the Paarl Royals and the Barbados Royals, playing in the SA20 league and Caribbean Premier League, respectively.

Following the completion of this acquisition, the Mittals will own ~75% of the franchise, while Poonawalla will own ~18%. The remaining ~7% will be held by certain existing investors including Manoj Badale.

The transaction is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals, including approvals from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

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