Deal Closed | Aakash Educational Services Limited | Byju's

The details of the deal are as under:

Sector: Education 

Announcement Date: 03-Apr-2021 

Completion Date 

Name of Client: Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) 

Transferor Details: Aakash Educational Services Limited | India 

Aakash Educational Services Limited operates in the coaching industry in India. It also offers short-term classroom courses to prepare students for upcoming examinations. The company provides its services through classroom-based coaching and digital and distance learning under the Aakash Medical, Aakash IIT-JEE, and Aakash Foundations brands.  

Transferee Details: Think & Learn Private Limited | India  

Deal Description: Acquisition of Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) by Think & Learn Private Limited (Byju's) through a combination of cash and stock, to enable a business consolidation of Aakash with Byju's by way of a strategic merger. 

Total Consideration: USD 1 billion 

Team Members: The core team consisted of Bharat Anand (Partner), Nidhi Killawala (Partner), Nimisha Trehan (Principal Associate) and Akshay Sharma (Principal Associate) with assistance from the following:  

Competition law aspects and the Antitrust filings: Manas Kumar Chaudhuri (Partner), Pranjal Prateek (Partner) and Alisha Mehra (Associate) 

Merger and other corporate aspects: Atul Pandey (Partner), Hirak Mukhopadhyay (Principal Associate), Nikita Bhuwania (Principal Associate), Pulkit Chaturvedi (Senior Associate), Varun Yadav (Associate) and Aayush Thapar (Associate) 

Intellectual property law aspects: Shailendra Bhandare (Partner) 

Employment law aspects: Anshul Prakash (Partner) and Abhinav Rastogi (Counsel) 

Role of Firm: Advised Aakash Educational Services Limited (Aakash) and its founders on sale of their shares in Aakash to Think & Learn Private Limited (Byju's) through a combination of cash and stock, and Aakash's business consolidation with Byju's by way of a strategic merger. 

Other legal advisors if any with names of Lead Lawyers: Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas  - Legal advisors to Byju's 

Trilegal - Legal advisors to the Blackstone Group 

Unique Feature of Transaction 

The transactions represent one of the largest deals in the ed-tech sector.