Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advises Blackstone Group on INR 4750 crore investment in Indiabulls Real Estate

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised the Blackstone Group (Blackstone) on its investment in two portfolio companies of Indiabulls Real Estate Limited (Indiabulls). This would be the largest private equity investment in the real estate space in India in 2018, with deal value of INR 4750 Crore and aggregate enterprise value of INR 9500 Crore (USD 1.46 billion approx.)

The General Corporate and Competition Law Practices of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised Blackstone on transaction strategy, structuring the transaction, conducting legal due diligence, drafting, and negotiating the transaction documents.

The Private Equity transaction team was led by Raghubir Menon, Regional Practice Head - Mumbai and Anuj Bhasme, Partner; and included Neety Thakkar, Senior Associate; Gaurav Dugar, Senior Associate; Nishant Sharma, Associate; Avichal Mathur, Associate; Sangeetha Ganesh, Associate; and Rutvi Shrimankar, Associate.

The Real Estate advisory team was led by Ashoo Gupta, Partner; and included Daryush Marfatia, Principal Associate; Mansi Samdani, Associate; Pallavi Kishore, Associate; and Siddhanth Jain, Associate.

The Competition Law advisory team was led by Shweta Shroff Chopra, Partner; and included Manika Brar, Partner; and Supritha Prodaturi, Senior Associate.

Akshay Chudasama, Managing Partner, provided strategic inputs and guidanceon the transaction.

The parties involved in the transaction were The Blackstone Group L.P. (our client); and Indiabulls Real Estate Limited (counter party).

As a part of the transaction, Blackstone would indirectly acquire 50 percent of the share capital of two portfolio companies of Indiabulls which are engaged in construction and development of real estate projects in India - namely Indiabulls Properties Private Limited (IPPL), and Indiabulls Real Estate Company Private Limited (IRECPL). IPPL and IRECPL own and operate marquee projects of Indiabulls, such as Indiabulls Finance Centre and One Indiabulls Centre in Mumbai.

Other advisors to the transaction were

Advisors to Blackstone: Simpson Thacher and Bartlett (international legal counsel); Kirkland and Ellis (FCPA inputs); Ernst and Young (financial due diligence, the direct tax due diligence, and the indirect tax due diligence); Bobby Parikh Associates (transaction structure advisor); ERM (environment law related legal advisor); Synergy (technical due diligence) and MadunGujadhur Chambers (advised SAM and Co. on the Mauritius Law aspects.)

Advisors to Indiabulls: J. Sagar Associates (Indialegal counsel); Pricewater house Coopers (structuring and tax advisor); Ernst and Young (deal advisors); Deloitte (financial due diligence, and tax diligence).

The deal was signed on 23 March, 2018, and closed on 28 March, 2018.