Ford Motor Co. will cede control of most of its India operations to Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), underscoring the US company’s long-drawn struggles to make a bigger dent in the world’s fourth-largest automobile market

[…]

“While Ford is looking to mitigate risks globally, the joint venture augurs well for M&M as the home-grown company gets access to Ford’s quality and design strengths to make headway into several global markets,” said Gaurav Vangaal, country lead, LVP forecasting, IHS Markit. “However, in the future, once the Indian market will become stable on suitable powertrain technologies, we expect US-based carmakers such as GM and Ford will relook at India for growth. Expect this to happen in the long run.”

— Mint

The joint venture will see Mahindra owning 51% and Ford the remainder, with Ford transferring its India operations into the JV, including its personnel and assembly plants in Chennai and Sanand.

The JV has a value of Rs 1,925 crores, according to a statement from Mahindra; the Indian car company is investing Rs 657 cr in the JV, according to Mint, which will operationally manage the entity, while having a governance structure including both companies.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s in-house legal team completed the documentation on the deal, led by in-housers Christopher Krishnamoorthy, Hoshedar Havewala and Karishma Muravne on the corporate / M&A side; Girish Gadgil, Avinash Galav and Suraj Singh acted from the auto business vertical of the legal team and Shilpa Joshi from the intellectual property team.

The Mahindra group’s in-house legal team is understood to consist of around 50 lawyers.

English law advice was provided by Mahindra & Mahindra by Linklaters partner London Savi Hebbur. Global competition law advice was provided by partner Linklaters Bernd Meyring.

Khaitan & Co provided Mahindra & Mahindra with due diligence support, led by partner Bhavik Narsana, principal associate Niharika Mepani, principal associate Vidur Sinha and associate Bhavya Bhankharia. The diligence aspects aspects were led by principal associate Niharika Mepani, principal associate Vidur Sinha, principal associate Saswat Subasit, associate Bhavya Bhankharia, associate Shubhi Pahwa and associate Nirali Trivedi; real estate aspects were handled by partner Harsh Parikh, senior associate Sneha Oak Joshi and associate Aleesha Jadhav; IP elements received advice from partner Adheesh Nargolkar and senior associate Sourav Dan.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised Mahindra & Mahindra on Indian competition law, led by partner Avaantika Kakkar and supported by principal associate Kirthi Srinivas.

The US car giant Ford Motor Company of Michigan and its Indian subsidiary Ford India Private Ltd, were represented by Hogan Lovells led by global head of M&A and partner William Curtin.

Ford India drafted in J Sagar Associates (JSA), led by partner Venkatesh Raman Prasad and partners Ronak Ajmera and Ashish Suman, principal associate Shivani Chugh and associates Ankit Srivastav, Ashwin Nayar, Ankita Jain, Sweta Singh, Oshin Taneja and Lipi Sarin4046. Also involved on anti-trust aspects were partners Amitabh Kumar and Vaibhav Choukse, principal associate Unnati Agrawal, and associate Parth Sehan. On tax were partner Kumarmanglam Vijay. Land and labour issues in respect of the state of Gujarat were led by partner Bijal H Chhatrapati and associate Arvind A Parikh. State of Tamil Nadu-related land and labour issues were led by partner Vinod Kumar, senior associate Srinivasan MD and associate Hemangini Srinidhi.

Handling large deals in-house is becoming increasingly common. BankBazaar, for instance, had handled a $30m funding round from Experian in-house in 2017.