AZB, Khaitan on complex $716m KPIT-Birlasoft mega-merger, split arrangement to create two listed tech players

Thursday, 22 February 2018 By Rukmini Biswas Corporate M&A

CK Birla-owned BirlaSoft and KPIT Technologies together have announced an open offer to the minority shareholders of KPIT, to merge and create a Rs 4,585 crore ($716m) combined entity thereafter splitting into two publicly traded units - a $200m automotive engineering and mobility solutions company and a $500m enterprise digital business IT services company, reported The Economic Times and Business Standard.

AZB & Partners advised KPIT in the transaction and was led by partners Ashwath Rau, Kashish Bhatia and Rahul Rai along with senior associates Medha Marathe, Pranav Atit, Rahul Satyan and Gaurav Bansal. The transactional team also included associates Shriyani Datta, Sruti Baid and Shivam Jha.

Khaitan & Co acted for Birlasoft. Its core transaction team comprised of partner Haigreve Khaitan, partner Niren Patel, principal associate Ashraya Rao, senior associate Saswat Subasit and associate Aparajita Chakraborty with assistance from the following members on the following aspects of the transaction. open offer: partner Arindam Ghosh, associate partner Moin Ladha, associate Arpita Anand and associate Shashank Patil, direct Tax: executive director Daksha Baxi, executive director Vinita Krishnan, principal associate Surajkumar Shetty, principal associate Shabnam Shaikh, senior associate Jimmy Bhatt and associate Ankit Namdeo, competition law: partner Avaantika Kakkar, senior associate Kirthi Srinivas and associate Balaji Venkatakrishnan, due diligence: associate Nupur Pandit, associate Enakshi Jain and associate Madhusmita Deept.

According to the KPIT press release, the newly created KPIT Technologies will be led by Kishor Patil as the CEO and MD and will help leverage KPIT’s expertise in automotive and mobility thereby deepening the relationship with global automotive and mobility leaders in fulfilling their engineering needs, whereas the new Birlasoft, that will emerge over the next year, will combine the management team and the IT Services business of KPIT with the current Birlasoft and is to be led by Anjan Lahiri as the CEO and MD.

2018-01-29

AZB & Partners Khaitan & Co

Comments

Racist 23 Feb 2018, 03:47

+1 -0

Who are the Khaitan & Co chaps on this one? This certainly is an azb release. Congrats to all though.

kianganz 23 Feb 2018, 06:38

+0 -0

KCo press release has also now arrived, have updated...

Lexpert 23 Feb 2018, 06:37

+9 -5

"Khaitan & Co acted for Birlasoft. Its core transaction team comprised of partner Haigreve Khaitan, partner Niren Patel, principal associate Ashraya Rao, senior associate Saswat Subasit and associate Aparajita Chakraborty with assistance from the following members on the following aspects of the transaction. open offer: partner Arindam Ghosh, associate partner Moin Ladha, associate Arpita Anand and associate Shashank Patil, direct Tax: executive director Daksha Baxi, executive director Vinita Krishnan, principal associate Surajkumar Shetty, principal associate Shabnam Shaikh, senior associate Jimmy Bhatt and associate Ankit Namdeo, competition law: partner Avaantika Kakkar, senior associate Kirthi Srinivas and associate Balaji Venkatakrishnan, due diligence: associate Nupur Pandit, associate Enakshi Jain and associate Madhusmita Deept."

OMG - this is just the core team!?! Talk of a law firm NREGA!!! :(

Bitter butter? 23 Feb 2018, 08:33

+6 -2

They are naming Associates which is quite a nice gesture. Why not look at the positives sometimes?

LolZ 23 Feb 2018, 09:09

+3 -0

I think the core transaction team and assistance from others is clearly highlighted...

Fakexpert 23 Feb 2018, 16:52

Lexpert? How many times have we told you to read your emails before responding to them? "Core transaction team"/"with assistance from", how could you miss these? Now, now, it leaves us worried about the documents that you've (not) been proofreading and circulating "subject to further internal review" :-)

Not from Khaitan 28 Feb 2018, 04:29

"Its core transaction team comprised of partner Haigreve Khaitan, partner Niren Patel, principal associate Ashraya Rao, senior associate Saswat Subasit and associate Aparajita Chakraborty with assistance from the following members on the following aspects of the transaction."

Basic comprehension Lexpert.

Guest User 23 Feb 2018, 06:50

True

Khaitan Fan 23 Feb 2018, 10:30

+4 -0

I think this is a great move and other law firms should follow suit to acknowledge the hard work put in by folks who did not get to work on the definitive documents.

KcoFAN 23 Feb 2018, 22:50

+2 -1

Looks like a complex deal with Khaitan & Co. leading the way

What logic! 24 Feb 2018, 10:32

+1 -4

Rather gives exact opposite impression - that they didn't have the depth to handle, so involved everyone they could lay hands on at the firm just to pile on bodies!

Hahahaha 27 Feb 2018, 05:59

Prolly because Khaitan did all the heavy lifting on the Deal !!!

What depth exactly? 27 Feb 2018, 09:57

Where do you work, Sir, pray tell? Do you work at one of those ‘elite’ law firms where certain ‘omniscient’ partners advise on transaction documents, open offer regulations, competition filings, tax structuring and due diligence issues simultaneously (and without being completely sure about anything in particular)? Or are you one of those second year zealot associates who are so enamored by the ‘aura’ of their all-wise partners that they simply start ignoring the difference between transactional advice, tax advice, regulatory advice and competition advice? If this is your understanding of how law firms should showcase their ‘depth’, then you need to crawl out of your cave right now and enjoy the sunlight with everyone else, my dear Sir! Will be happy to send you links to the websites of some foreign and Indian law firms which have separate practice groups for working on each of these ‘distinct’ areas.

For Kian/Team LI 24 Feb 2018, 04:26

kian, why my comment on pnb not published?

Guest 25 Feb 2018, 05:12

Sir, can you please give us information about the new NLU in J&K?
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/jammu-and-kashmir-to-have-national-law-university-govt/articleshow/62931940.cms

Will it participate in CLAT this year?

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