Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Advises Videocon d2H on Merger with Dish TV

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. acted as the Legal Counsel to Videocon d2h Limited (“VDL”) in the transaction involving merger of Videocon d2h Limited into Dish TV India Limited (“DTIL”). It is the first consolidation in the direct-to-home broadcasting sector resulting in one of the largest direct-to-home cable operators in India. This deal represents one of the few examples of an amalgamation of an entity with a competitor.

The General Corporate Team and Competition Law Practices of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised Videocon d2H on all aspects of the transaction.

The M&A team was led by Ms. Gunjan Shah, Partner; and included Mr. Arjun Ghose, Partner; Ms. Shruti Kanodia, Partner; Ms. Manjari Tyagi, Partner; Mr. Anuj Trivedi, Principal Associate; Mr. Mukul Aggarwal, Senior Associate; Mr. Aditya Kumar, Associate; and Mr. Shivankar Sharma, Associate.

The Competition Law team was led by Shweta Shroff Chopra, Partner and Aparna Mehra, Partner and included Rohan Arora, Principal Consultant; Toshit Shandilya, Associate and Neetu Ahlawat, Associate.

DTIL’s equity shares are listed on the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited while VDL’s American depositary shares (“ADS”) are listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market.The transaction involves a delisting and deregistration of VDL’s ADS from the NASDAQ Stock Market and issuance of listed GDRs by DTIL to such ADS holders (unless they elect to receive equity shares of DTIL instead).

SAM &Co’s Competition Law team provided Videocon d2h legal and strategic advice in relation to preparing and filing a joint Notification Form II and all related submissions with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) along with DTIL. The transaction is noteworthy as this was the first time the CCI has assessed a merger in the DTH sector and the proposed combination would result in creation of a largest DTH service provider in India. The CCI examined various aspects relating to the scope of the relevant product market and third party comments on the transaction.

The CCI cleared the Proposed Combination in Phase I of its review process.

The parties involved in the transaction were Dish TV India Limited.

Other advisors to the transaction were Luthra & Luthra Law Offices acted for DTIL. Shearman and Sterling acted as international counsels for both VDL and DTIL.

The deal was signed on November 11, 2016.

The closure of the deal is not ascertainable as the proposed transaction is subject to approvals, including from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Hon’ble High Court of Mumbai and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

About Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

Established again in 2015, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., is one of India’s leading law firms rated by international organisations, law directories and professional journals. As a full service law firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas is renowned in the business community for its ability to enable business, its innovative solutions, responsiveness and collaboration with its clients. The Firm continues its journey as “a young and wise firm” in its “Centenary Year of Excellence”.

Currently, the Firm has over 450 lawyers, including 85 Partners, offering legal services through its offices at New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai.