American Tower Corporation (ATC) has acquired 51% of the shares in Viom Networks. The sellers were Tata Sons, Tata Teleservices, IDFC Private Equity Fund III, Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Investments, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust, SREI Infrastructure Finance, Sunil Kanoria, IDFC Private Equity Fund II and GIC’s Indivest.
The deal has been valued at ₹76.35 billion (US$1.15 billion).
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Tata Teleservices will retain a part of its holding, while IDFC PE Fund III, Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Investments and SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust will retain certain interests. Under the agreement, ATC may be required to purchase all or a portion of the remaining 49% stake in Viom. Additionally, the parties have agreed that, once the deal has closed, ATC’s Indian portfolio of approximately 14,000 towers will be merged with Viom’s 42,200 wireless communications towers and 200 indoor distributed antenna systems across India. The deal was signed on 21 October and is expected to close by 31 July 2016.
Luthra & Luthra and AZB & Partners advised ATC on the acquisition. Luthra’s team was led by partner Kanchan Sinha along with managing associate Shikhar Kacker and associates Kaustubh Verma, Sonika Bajpeyee and Sanya Parmar. Partner Anshul Jain advised on secretarial aspects of the transaction.
The AZB & Partners team included M&A partners Gautam Saha and Shuchi Sinha, tax partners Ajay Bahl and Sunil Agarwal and competition law partner Samir Gandhi.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised Viom and the selling shareholders. The team comprised partner Ashwath Rau, competition law partner Nisha Kaur Uberoi and dispute resolution partner Indranil Deshmukh.
Clifford Chance was ATC’s international legal adviser.
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