“On 21 December, RCom signed a binding agreement with Brookfield to sell a 51% stake in Reliance Infratel for Rs11,000 crore. RCom currently owns close to a 96% stake in the company, while the remaining ownership is with minority investors,” reported Mint on 29 December 2016.

This is one of the largest investment in India’s infrastructure sector by an overseas financial investor, according to Shardul Amarchand’s statement, with the deal having been signed on 21 December 2016.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) led for Reliance, with joint managing partner Dina Wadia, and partner Sandeep Mehta, Rajesh Pal and Manav Raheja, and associates Prannoy Semwal and Ronak Shah.

Herbert Smith Freehills advised Reliance on non-Indian laws, led by corporate partner Roddy Martin and senior associate Joseph Fisher, and assisted by senior associate Hayley Brady and associate Sid Shukla. HSF Singapore-based corporate partner Mark Robinson and London-based tax partner Howard Murray also advised on the deal.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas acted for Brookfield Infrastructure Group on due diligence, structuring of the overall transaction and in the drafting, negotiations and finalisation of the transaction documents, according to the firm.

The Shardul Amarchand team was led in general corporate by managing partner Akshay Chudasama and partner Jay Gandhi and partner Roopal Kulsrestha, with senior associate Abhishek Parekh and associate Neelam Pathak.

Also assisting at Shardul Amarchand were corporate principal associate Ankit Guha and principal associate Kunal Mehta, with associate Surbhi Ahluwalia, associate Meghna Nachappa, associate Komal Modi, associate Shubra Sharma, and associate Nishant Sharma.

The real estate team was led by partner Ashoo Gupta, principal associate Daryush Marfatia, principal associate designate Saloni Sheth and associate Pallavi Kishore.

Shardul Amarchand also fielded securities team partner Yogesh Chande and associate Gaurav Malhotra, disputes partner Nitesh Jain, associate Saurabh Saraogi, associate Jeet Karia, and associate Payal Chhabria, competition law partner Shweta Shroff and Gauri Chhabria, banking partner Debashree Dutta and senior associate Sourabh Bhattacharya.

Brookfields has been a long-standing client of Chudasama’s, with him having also advised the asset management firm on a Rs 563 crore deal in 2015 shortly after joining Shardul Amarchand from JSA.