AZB & Partners, Talwar Thakore & Associates, Allen & Overy (A&O), Linklaters and Vinson & Elkins have advised on oil major British Petroleum’s (BP) record acquisition of 30 per cent of 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts (including the KG D6 block) operated by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for a consideration of $7.2bn (Rs 32,500 crore).
AZB & Partners, A&O and Vinson & Elkins acted for Reliance while Linklaters with best friend Talwar Thakore & Associates led for BP.
AZB partner Shuva Mandal, with A&O oil and gas partners John Geraghty and Paul Griffin were drafted in for RIL.
Geraghty told The Lawyer magazine in the UK: “This is a landmark transaction by any measure and strategically important for Reliance. We have a much-valued relationship with Reliance and it is fantastic that we’ve been able to continue to develop that relationship by advising them in relation to this deal.”
AZB stated in a release that it rendered legal advice on documentation and negotiation of the joint venture agreements and the sale and purchase agreements apart from helping on regulatory issues.
Linklaters corporate partner and India head Sandeep Katwala with corporate partner Stephen Griffin, advised the world’s second largest publicly traded oil firm BP, which is a long-standing client of the firm.
The deal entails formation of a 50:50 joint venture between the two companies for the sourcing and marketing of gas in India aiming to accelerate the creation of infrastructure for receiving, transporting and marketing of natural gas in the country.
According to media reports the transaction could lead to the largest-ever inflow of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into India, with an immediate consideration of $7.2bn, with another $1.8bn contingent on performance and with a combined investment that could eventually amount to $20bn.
Comments
Unlucky for A&O though that Trilegal is not big enough yet in corporate to handle this sort of thing.
Or Trilegal is doing better than people give it credit for.
Question is is this the sign of times to come?
No 6, You may well be right. Trilegal may not have been hired even if they did not have a conflict owing to Zia's relationship but there is no way to know either way.
BTW, where did LI get the figure of 20 billion? Ah, "eventually"....eventually, I do hope a poor sod like me does get to make his millions.
And, isn't Posco's investment for a greenfield iron & steel plant worth USD 12 billion? I thought that qualified it as the largest ever inflow of FDI into India. That project has been cleared with a slew of riders.
Far better than exporting 100 million tonnes of high-grade iron ore to China. Glad J Ramesh got that finally.
When the deal was back on track, RIL decided to change their advisors (a lot of structuring had already been done by that time!)
Also, I think you work on the assumption that M&A is the only kind of deals which happen in India!!
On mukesh feeling cheated- Im sure RIL is not AMSS's wife and Anil AMSS's mistress! firms which are not on retainer basis are free to represent whoever they want till it is not a situation of a conflict, in which case, due permission is requested from the counterparty. Only on receipt of such consent, can a firm work for anyone against the other.
#13- i agree with 12 as this is also what i have heard! If what 12 says is true, is it not possible that RIL engaged AMSS and then replaced them so that they are conflicted in the deal????
Maybe you should also note that the lawyers representing Ambanis and BP were all London based 'real' Oil and Gas lawyers and though it is not relevant but for those who are less exposed to what corporate lawyers do this deal was most probably done through share in SPV's owning the stake..