Khaitan & Co. assisted Schneider Electric Industries SAS (“Schneider”) in signing definitive documents for acquiring a further 55 per cent stake in Planon Beheer B.V. (together with its subsidiaries, “Planon”). Schneider had earlier acquired a 25% stake in Planon in 2020. Planon is a provider of real estate and facility management software that enables building and service digitalization. This strategic investment is expected to further strengthen Schneider’s agnostic software strategy, with Planon’s established and strong footprint in the global buildings market, cloud-based Integrated Workplace Management System offer and subscription-based software business model well positioned to capitalise on the fast-growing smart building software market.
The Firm assisted Schneider in conducting legal due diligence on Planon's Indian subsidiary, Planon Software Services Private Limited and finalising W&I aspects for signing of the definitive agreements.
The core team consisted of Rabindra Jhunjhunwala (Partner), Roshnek Dhalla (Counsel), Srijanee Bhattacherjee (Principal Associate), Harshita Jajodia (Associate) and Prerna Hegde (Associate) with assistance from the following:
Employment related aspects: Anshul Prakash (Partner), Abhisek Choudhury (Principal Associate) and Sidheswar Sahoo (Associate);
Intellectual property aspects: Shailendra Bhandare (Partner) and Sourav Dan (Principal Associate).
One of the innovative features of this transaction was our involvement in finalising warranty and indemnity ("W&I") insurance, an increasingly popular risk allocation tool for parties in M&A deals. Khaitan & Co assisted the W&I insurers in identifying and assessing the risk exposure from a transactional perspective. Khaitan & Co also enabled a smooth underwriting process by addressing the detailed underwriting questions posed by the W&I insurers in relation to the sufficiency of disclosure during the legal due diligence.
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