AZB Delhi double-teams on giant $350m Warburg-Airtel deal

Tuesday, 12 December 2017 By Legally India Private equity / VC

“Airtel will sell a 15% stake in the DTH business to Warburg Pincus entity Lion Meadow Investment for Rs 1,623.76 crore, the telecom firm said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday. Another group company that holds 5% of Bharti Telemedia will offer its entire stake to the PE firm. The deal values Bharti Telemedia at close to Rs 11,300 crore. This may make it India’s second largest DTH player by valuation, according to industry experts,” reported The Economic Times.

AZB & Partners Delhi partner Anil Kasturi and partner Nandita Govind and senior associate Jaishree Tolani Lamba acted for private equity giant Warburg Pincus.

AZB & Partners Delhi partner Gautam Saha, meanwhile, led the team for Bharti - a group that has been a long-standing and nearly exclusive client of the firm’s office in M&A matters. Also included in the team were partner Dushyant Bagga and senior associate Swati Chauhan.

AZB Delhi managing partner Ajay Bahl commented: “Both are extremely valued relationships and we greatly value the confidence and trust reposed.”

Other than with AZB Delhi and Mumbai, Warburg has in the past also worked with many other firms including Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai,

AZB & Partners

Comments

Well Wisher 13 Dec 2017, 05:15
+10 -0
How do they protect their conflicts in such deals, despite having two different teams (partners). Even if there is a Chinese wall amongst them, arent they still part of the same office/building/server... what not?
Lexpert 13 Dec 2017, 06:12
+5 -0
They sit next to each other.. The Chinese walls are paper-thin!
Lex Luther 13 Dec 2017, 06:36
+8 -0
Kuch tho hamare liye chod dho bhai!!!
Magic Tomato 13 Dec 2017, 08:09
+15 -0
This is a Japanese Wall, also known as a shoji. Or in this case, please show me ji.
China 13 Dec 2017, 10:28
+4 -0
Is that the reason why we call it the Chinese Wall and say not the Swiss wall or a German wall. (Although German wall has also collapsed now)
shocked client 13 Dec 2017, 16:44
+15 -2
I have seen banks having different trees for the borrowers in a M&A situations - but they will never advise on both sides of an M&A - heck the control and compliance teams will not allow it because of the conflict involved, and this beats everything. But whatever said and done if the clients were okay with this, then truly hats off to AZB for gaining such kind of trust from the clients.
Shock absorber 14 Dec 2017, 07:09
+4 -0
On a related point you may also want to read this:

http://www.legalweek.com/sites/legalweek/2017/07/19/white-case-hit-with-record-250k-fine-for-reckless-conflict-of-interest-and-confidentiality-failures/?slreturn=20171114020854
Tree culture 16 Dec 2017, 12:19
+2 -2
Interesting that the so called rockstar is not on the big PE deal. Guess the divide between Delhi and Mumbai leads to the banyan trees being maintained within Delhi itself. Keep your foes close but your clients closer. The true PE rockstars of AZB Anil and Gautam take a bow.
Commenting is closed for this article.