Deal Closed | British Columbia Investment Management Corporation | Acquisition of 100 per cent stake in Tower Infrastructure Trust

Singapore's GIC, Brookfield Infrastructure buy Indian telecom towers for $3.4 billion.

The details of the deal are as under:

Sector: TMT

Announcement Date: 19-Jul-2019

Completion Date: 31-Aug-2020

Name of Client: British Columbia Investment Management Corporation

BCI is one of Canada's largest institutional investors, with over C$171 billion (over ~US$131 billion) of managed net assets.

Deal Description: British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), alongside Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. and other investors, have acquired from the Reliance Group, 100 per cent stake of Tower Infrastructure Trust, an InvIT that in turn holds 100% stake in Reliance Jio Infratel Private Limited (RJIPL). RJIPL owns around 135,000 communication towers which forms Reliance Jio’s telecommunication network. More towers are planned, increasing the total number of towers in the transaction perimeter to approximately 175,000.

The total equity commitment for the transaction is approximately USD 3.4 billion. 

Total Consideration: USD 3.4 billion

Team members: core transaction team comprised Siddharth Shah (Partner), Anuj Shah (Partner), Aashutosh Sampat (Partner), Vivek Mimani (Partner), Shantanu Gupta (Partner), Gokul Thampi (Associate), Khusboo Agarwal (Associate) and Utsav Lohia (Associate). Anti-trust aspects: Anisha Chand (Partner), Anmol Awasthi (Associate) and Arvind Pillai (Associate). Tax aspects: Bijal Ajinkya (Partner) and Rahul Jain (Principal Associate)

Role of Firm: Khaitan & Co. acted as the Indian legal counsel for BCI.

Other legal advisors if any with names of Lead Lawyers: AZB & Partners represented Brookfield Asset Management; Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas represented Reliance Industries Limited; Nishith Desai and Associates represented GIC