Indian firms help seal the BillDesk-PayU deal

Indian firms help seal the BillDesk-PayU deal

The PayU acquisition of BillDesk will make the combined entity a top global online payment provider

Indian law firms have played key roles in the acquisition of the home-grown payment gateway BillDesk by the global major Prosus Ventures (PayU).

The deal worth $4.7 billion will make the combined entity one of the top global and domestic payment gateways with an expected annual turnover of $147 billion.

The deal between BillDesk and PayU is one of the largest acquisitions in India's digital payments landscape and by far the biggest consolidation move in the fast-growing sector.

The deal also means the exit of BillDesk's existing investors General Atlantic, TA Associates, Temasek, Clearstone Ventures, and Visa from the new combined entity.

Law firm Trilegal advised its long-term client Prosus Ventures through its payments and fintech arm PayU. The Trilegal team was led by Yogesh Singh (Partner and Co-head, Corporate Practice Group). He was assisted by Harsh Jain (Corporate Partner) and Nisha Kaur Uberoi (National Head of the Competition Practice).

Other key partners involved in the Trilegal team included Nikhil Narendran and Jyotsna Jayaram (both Technology), Atul Gupta (Employment), Himanshu Sinha (Tax) Gautam Chawla (Competition).

Other attorneys involved in the deal team were Sibani Saxena, Sumi Saikia, Sonam Mathur, Deepthi Rajeev and Komal Dani, (Counsel); Saurabh Arora, Principal Consultant; Ratnavel Pandian, Harshita Parmar, Mathew George, Thomas J. Vallianeth, Parvathy Tharamel and Manasa Sundarraman (Senior Associates); Monik Damania (Senior Consultant); Madhav Tampi, Aishwarya Singh, Namratha Satish, Eshita Jain, Vividha Bawa, Ishan Arora, Rahat Dhawan, Parumita Pal, Pramothesh Mukherjee, Rishi Kauntia, Samriddha Gooptu, Sarthak Pande, Simran Kathuria, Shivangi Chawla, Shreya Ramann, Samvit Ganesh, Anjana Ravi, Utkarsh Srivastava, Divya Padmanabhan, Ishani Sharma and Joseph Moses Parambi (Associates).

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) advised Billdesk and its founders. The SAM team was led by Raghubir Menon, Regional Practice Head – M&A and Private Equity, General Corporate, Natashaa Shroff, Partner, General Corporate, Shiladitya Banerjee, Partner, General Corporate, Tanmayee Chaulkar, Senior Associate and Rohan Singh, Associate.

The SAM Due Diligence Team included Raghubir Menon, Regional Practice Head – M&A and Private Equity, General Corporate, Natashaa Shroff, Partner, General Corporate, Shiladitya Banerjee, Partner, General Corporate, Tanmayee Chaulkar, Senior Associate, Pranav Sethi, Associate, Rounak Agarwal, Associate, Madhurika Durge, Associate and Niharika Sharma, Associate.

While the Tax Team comprised Gouri Puri, Partner and Rahul Yadav, Principal Associate, while the Competition Team included Aparna Mehra, Partner, Rahul Shukla, Senior Associate and Kshitij Sharma, Associate.

The Intellectual Property team was made of Abhay J.V., Partner and Leoni Mahanta, Principal Associate.

AZB & Partners advised the selling shareholders, by a team led by Partners Vaidhyanadhan Iyer and Vipul Jain.