Seven Law Firms Acted on Reliance - Walt Disney JV in India

Seven Law Firms Acted on Reliance - Walt Disney JV in India

Reliance Industries Limited and Viacom 18 Media Private Limited have entered into a strategic Joint Venture with The Walt Disney Company.

In addition, RIL has agreed to invest ₹11,500 crore (~US$ 1.4 billion) into the JV for its growth strategy at the closing of the deal.

Khaitan & Co acted as legal counsel to Reliance Industries and Viacom18 on this transaction.

The deal team was led by Haigreve Khaitan (Partner), Kartick Maheshwari (Partner), Deepak Jodhani (Partner), Mehul Shah (Partner), Tanu Banerjee (Partner) with assistance from Rahul Dutt (Partner), and included Gautam Suseel (Principal Associate), Ishan Johri (Principal Associate) and Tanya Singh Shah (Senior Associate).

Khaitan & Co team also consisted of: Anisha Chand (Partner) and Anshuman Sakle (Partner), Soham Banerjee (Principal Associate), Alisha Mehra (Senior Associate), Rishabh Vohra (Associate) and Yatharth V Singh (Associate), on Competition Law related aspects.

Tanu Banerjee (Partner), Ishan Johri (Principal Associates), Heema Shirvaikar (Senior Associate), Virali Nagda (Senior Associate), Bimbita Kateel (Associate), Akriti Sirsalewala (Associate), Prakhar Khandelwal (Associate), Sankalp Jain (Associate) and Naina Bora (Associate) on Technology, Media and Entertainment laws related aspects.

Adheesh Nargolkar (Partner), Smriti Yadav (Partner), Sunaina Brahma (Senior Associate), Shubham Shende (Associate) and Paarth Samdani (Associate), on Intellectual Property related aspects.

Aman Yagnik (Counsel), Rushabh Gala (Principal Associate), Jamsheed Dadachanji (Senior Associate), Amit Panwar (Associate), Dhruvi Dharia (Associate) and Jaideep Sharma (Paralegal) on the Merger Scheme related aspects.

The due diligence team comprised of Deepak Kumar (Partner), Sneha Janakiraman (Partner), Madhav Khosla (Principal Associate), Saurav Bhaumik (Principal Associate), Deeksha Malik (Senior Associate), Divyansh Joshi (Associate), Smriti Nair (Associate), Anadi Saxena (Associate), Shreya Sukhtankar (Associate), Hardik Malik (Associate), Miheer Jain (Associate).

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co also advised Reliance Industries and Viacom18 on this transaction.

The transaction team was led by Pallavi Shroff (Managing Partner) and included Iqbal Khan (Partner M&A), Puja Sondhi (Partner M&A), Shweta Shroff (Partner Competition), Shashank Mishra (Partner TMT) and Shivangi Talwar (Partner Investments and Buy-outs).

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom acted as international legal counsel to Reliance Industries and Viacom18 on this transaction.

AZB & Partners served as legal counsel to Disney on the transaction. The AZB team was led by Managing Partner Zia Mody along with Partner Roxanne Anderson.

Covington & Burling served as legal counsel to Disney on the transaction and Cleary Gottlieb was lead outside counsel to Disney on the transaction.

The transaction team consisted of Tihir Sarkar (Partner), Nallini Puri (Partner), Dan Tierney (Partner), and James Soussa (Associate) of the Firm's London M&A group, as well as many other Cleary colleagues around the world.

JSA advised Paramount Global on this transaction.

The transaction team consisted of Lalit Kumar (Lead Partner) and Bharati Joshi (Partner).

The Joint Venture transaction was valued at ₹70,352 crore (~US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding synergies. Post completion of the above steps, the JV will be controlled by RIL and owned 16.34% by RIL, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney.