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Khaitan & Co acted for Reliance Telecommunications in its acquisition of the wireless business of J Sagar Associates (JSA)-advised Sistema Shyam Teleservices for Rs 2,100 crore of equity, while also taking on Rs 2,400 crore of Sistema’s debt to the government.

Khaitan partners Haigreve Khaitan and Sharad Abhyankar, associate partner Mehul Shah, principal associate Supratim Chakraborty and associate Aayush Misra made up the core transactional team for Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)-owned Reliance.

English law advice to ADAG was provided by Herbert Smith Freehills London partner Roddy Martin.

JSA partners Mansoor Ali Shoket, Rohitashwa? Prasad and Akshay Nagpal led the team for Sistema, with strategic advice by chairman Jyoti Sagar.

Baker & McKenzie LLP London partner Tim Sheddick acted for Sistema on English laws.

Khaitan tax partner Bijal Ajinkya, principal associate Vinita Krishnan, and senior associate Surajkumar Shetty assisted on direct tax aspects, while principal associate Narendra Pati advised on indirect tax.

Khaitan associate partner Harsh Walia, senior associate Sarvesh Saluja, and associate Kriti Singhania acted on telecommunications-laws, according to a press release from the firm.

Update: The JSA team also included senior associate Nidhi Sahay and associate Akanksha Mahapatra; partners Amar Gupta, Mansoor Ali Shoket, Amitabh Kumar, Divyanshu Pandey, Vibha Dhawan and Arpita Garg; head of telecom practice SP Purwar; senior associates Divyam Agarwal, Vaibhav Chouksey & Gautam Shahi; and associates Radhika Gupta, Nikhil Bahl and Rityunjay Gupta on various aspects of the deal.

Sistema holds around Rs 7,955 crore worth of 800 MHz spectrum in eight circles, which will be utilised by Reliance Jio to launch high-speed LTE data and voice services, reported Mint.

Sistema has been loss-making but the deal gives the company a valuation of 10 times.

Last week Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas won a case for two Anil Ambani ADAG power companies in the Delhi high court, having retained the marquee client after the split between Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi and Mumbai offices.

Khaitan had acted for the underwriters in the IPO of ADAG subsidiary Reliance Infratel in 2009, with Amarchand Mangaldas having acted for the company.

Khaitan has for long advised Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries (RIL), and in September the firm hired Reliance Industries in-house counsel Rahul Dutt as a partner. This would “strengthen” Khaitan’s 10-year-plus relationship with RIL, said partner Haigreve Khaitan at the time.

Photo by Nachoman-au.