Friday, 04 October 2019 01:19Corporate M&AAn estimated 3 minute read...
Ford Motor Co. will cede control of most of its India operations to Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), underscoring the US company’s long-drawn struggles to make a bigger dent in the world’s fourth-largest automobile market
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“While Ford is looking to mitigate risks globally, the joint venture augurs well for M&M as the home-grown company gets access to Ford’s quality and design strengths to make headway into several global markets,” said Gaurav Vangaal, country lead, LVP forecasting, IHS Markit. “However, in the future, once the Indian market will become stable on suitable powertrain technologies, we expect US-based carmakers such as GM and Ford will relook at India for growth. Expect this to happen in the long run.”
The joint venture will see Mahindra owning 51% and Ford the remainder, with Ford transferring its India operations into the JV, including its personnel and assembly plants in Chennai and Sanand.
The JV has a value of Rs 1,925 crores, according to a statement from Mahindra; the Indian car company is investing Rs 657 cr in the JV, according to Mint, which will operationally manage the entity, while having a governance structure including both companies.
Mahindra & Mahindra’s in-house legal team completed the documentation on the deal, led by in-housers Christopher Krishnamoorthy, Hoshedar Havewala and Karishma Muravne on the corporate / M&A side; Girish Gadgil, Avinash Galav and Suraj Singh acted from the auto business vertical of the legal team and Shilpa Joshi from the intellectual property team.
The Mahindra group’s in-house legal team is understood to consist of around 50 lawyers.
English law advice was provided by Mahindra & Mahindra by LinklaterspartnerLondon Savi Hebbur. Global competition law advice was provided by partnerLinklaters Bernd Meyring.
Khaitan & Co provided Mahindra & Mahindra with due diligence support, led by partnerBhavik Narsana, principal associateNiharika Mepani, principal associateVidur Sinha and associateBhavya Bhankharia. The diligence aspects aspects were led by principal associateNiharika Mepani, principal associateVidur Sinha, principal associateSaswat Subasit, associateBhavya Bhankharia, associateShubhi Pahwa and associateNirali Trivedi; real estate aspects were handled by partnerHarsh Parikh, senior associateSneha Oak Joshi and associateAleesha Jadhav; IP elements received advice from partnerAdheesh Nargolkar and senior associateSourav Dan.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised Mahindra & Mahindra on Indian competition law, led by partnerAvaantika Kakkar and supported by principal associateKirthi Srinivas.
The US car giant Ford Motor Company of Michigan and its Indian subsidiary Ford India Private Ltd, were represented by Hogan Lovells led by global head of M&A and partnerWilliam Curtin.
Ford India drafted in J Sagar Associates (JSA), led by partnerVenkatesh Raman Prasad and partnersRonak Ajmera and Ashish Suman, principal associateShivani Chugh and associatesAnkit Srivastav, Ashwin Nayar, Ankita Jain, Sweta Singh, Oshin Taneja and Lipi Sarin4046. Also involved on anti-trust aspects were partnersAmitabh Kumar and Vaibhav Choukse, principal associateUnnati Agrawal, and associateParth Sehan. On tax were partnerKumarmanglam Vijay. Land and labour issues in respect of the state of Gujarat were led by partnerBijal H Chhatrapati and associateArvind A Parikh. State of Tamil Nadu-related land and labour issues were led by partnerVinod Kumar, senior associateSrinivasan MD and associateHemangini Srinidhi.
Handling large deals in-house is becoming increasingly common. BankBazaar, for instance, had handled a $30m funding round from Experian in-house in 2017.
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RIL has some pretty suave in house lawyers, and I think a lot of major in house teams are now handling a lot of work indoors, except diligence. Happened to meet someone at RIL for a transaction, a 2011 alumni from NALSAR, and his grasp of the commercial and legal aspects of the deal was much sharper than anything I've seen in in law firms. And this is from someone who has spent a good decade in a top tier firm. A lot of firms are going to be waiting for folks like him to make the transition.
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