Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. advises Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited on its proposed acquisition of the railway equipment division of Escorts Kubota Limited

October 28, 2024

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. advised Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited (Sona) in its proposed acquisition of the railway equipment division of Escorts Kubota Limited (EKL) on a going concern basis through a slump sale. The deal is valued at approximately USD 190 million (INR 1,600 Crores), subject to post closing adjustments. The date of signing was 23 October 2024.

The Transaction Team was led by Rudra Kumar Pandey, Partner; Amanjot Malhi, Partner; Rohan Jain, Partner; Kshitij Arora, Principal Associate; Ashim Gupta, Senior Associate; Deepti Pandey, Associate; Sneha Kalia, Associate; Shrutika Lakhotia, Associate; Himanshu Raghuwanshi, Associate; and Arshit Kapoor, Associate.

The Due Diligence Team was led by Rudra Kumar Pandey, Partner; Amanjot Malhi, Partner; Jyoti Gautam Tanwar, Senior Associate; Ashim Gupta, Senior Associate; Kajal Advani, Senior Associate; Deepti Pandey, Associate; Sneha Kalia, Associate; Himanshu Raghuwanshi, Associate and Srijan Srivastava, Associate.

The Due Diligence Team was assisted by the following practice teams: (a) Real Estate: Mrinal Kumar, Partner; Shrutikirti Kumar, Partner; Arnav Sahni, Principal Associate; and Gouri Kotwaliwale, Associate; (b)  Employment: Pooja Ramchandani, Partner; Suryansh Gupta, Principal Associate; Sanskriti Nigam, Associate; and Lijin Varughese, Associate; (c) Competition: Harman Singh Sandhu, Partner; Atreyee Sarkar, Partner; and Aryika Dadhwal, Associate; (d) Direct Tax: Gouri Puri, Partner; Rahul Yadav, Counsel; and Suyash Sinha, Principal Associate; (e) Indirect Tax: Rajat Bose, Partner; and Neeladri Chakrabarti, Consultant; (f) Intellectual Property Rights: Apoorva Murali, Partner; Anshika Chadha, Associate; and Aishwarya Mukherjee, Associate; (g) Environment: Radhika Dudhat, Partner; Priyanka Seth, Counsel; and Dhwani Baxi, Senior Associate; and (h) Dispute Resolution: Saifur Rahman Faridi, Partner. Further, VR Neelakantan, Partner, provided strategic inputs to the Due Diligence Team in terms of transfer of the product approvals granted by the Research Design and Standards Organisation, and various zones and departments of Indian Railways.

Ernst & Young acted as the financial advisors to Sona, and KMPG acted as tax advisors to Sona.

DMD Advocates, Morgan Stanley and Transaction Square advised EKL on legal, financial and tax aspects respectively.