Khaitan & Co scooped another Blackstone mandate in the private equity house’s Rs 225 crore ($51m) investment in newspaper publisher Jagran Media, which was advised by Luthra & Luthra. Simpson Thacher was the international legal counsel to Blackstone.

The Khaitan & Co Blackstone team was led by partners Rabindra Jhunjhunwala and private equity partner Ashwin Mathew, who was promoted last week.

Luthra & Luthra partner Vineet Aneja, senior associate Mohit Sharma and associate Vikram Bhargav advised Jagran, which is a long-standing client of the firm.

Jhunjhunwala said: “It’s been going on for quite a while and was a very complex structured transaction, with very hard negotiations with the company and the company’s advisers.”

“I think we are glad that it’s culminated in a signing. Now all is dependent on the third party consents and the conditions to be satisfied before investment,” he added.

Aneja noted that the transaction took around one-and-a-half months, subject to the post-signing conditions.

This is Khaitan & Co’s latest major Blackstone mandate, having in November 2009 acted on Blackstone’s Rs 300 crore investment in Gateway Rail Freight.

“We are really glad we bagged another one on the Blackstone side,” said Jhunjhunwala. “It is quite a relationship we are building with Blackstone India.”

Jagran owns Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran, which has a readership of 54.6m, as well as several other publications and media ventures.