JSA advised and assisted Ford Motor Company and its subsidiaries (“Ford”) in relation to its proposed sale/transfer, to Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (“TPEML”), a subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited (“Tata”), of: (a) land and building owned by Ford India Private Limited (“Ford India”) situated at Sanand, Ahmedabad; (b) all assets, machinery, equipment of Ford India’s Sanand vehicle manufacturing plant (“VM Plant”); (c) all eligible employees of the VM Plant. Further, Ford India would continue the operations of its existing powertrain manufacturing plant at Sanand (“PT Plant”) and for which purpose, it would lease back from TPEML the land, buildings, structures, facilities which pertain to the PT Plant.
Additionally, TPEML has agreed to offer employment to the eligible employees of PT Plant in the event of Ford India’s cessation of such operations. The completion of the transaction will be subject to the receipt of relevant approvals of the government authorities and fulfilment of customary conditions.
Deal value for this transaction is INR 725.7 Crores / US$ 96 million.
Hogan Lovells International LLP assisted with assessment of global anti-trust filing requirements in connection with the transaction. Citi acted as investment banker and Ernst & Young acted as tax advisors to Ford in relation to the transaction.
Tata was advised by AZB & Partners. Deloitte conducted the financial due diligence and acted as tax advisors to Tata.
JSA Transaction Team comprised Lead Partner – Venkatesh Raman Prasad, Partner – Ronak Ajmera, Partner – Shivani Chugh, Senior Associate – Ankita Jain & Sweta Singh, and Associate – Jatin Talwar.
JSA Real Estate Team comprised Partner – Bijal H Chhatrapati, Partner – Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Senior Associate – Mohit Aggarwal, and Associate – Arvind A Parikh.
JSA Competition Team comprised Partner & Head of Practice (Competition Law) – Vaibhav Choukse, Principal Associate – Ela Bali, and Senior Associate – Aditi Khanna.
JSA Tax Team comprised Partner & Head of Practice – Direct Tax – Kumarmanglam Vijay and Associate – Shiv Singhal.
Other JSA Team Members – Assistance on contractual issues concerning financing matters Partner – Nand Gopal Anand.
Bharat specializes in Real Estate and Corporate Advisory related matters. He has extensive experience in Real Estate related transactions including conducting of legal due diligence, drafting of lease deeds, leave and license agreements, joint development agreements and sale deeds.
Bijal has an invaluable and rich experience in handling various types of litigations. The scope of his litigation expertise covers a wide range including corporate and commercial, intellectual property rights, arbitrations, writs under the Constitution of India, Admiralty.
Ela is a partner with JSA’s competition law practice with 10 years of experience. She represents and advises clients across different sectors on enforcement and merger control matters before the Competition Commission of India (CCI), National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Delhi and Bombay High Court, and the Supreme Court of India (SC).
Kumarmanglam is an equity partner of the firm and also heads the direct tax and regulatory practice at JSA. He has more than 25 years of experience in matters relating to direct taxation (including international taxation, transfer pricing, litigation, anti-avoidance laws, and M&A tax), accounting, and corporate laws including mergers and acquisition, joint ventures, foreign investments, market entry strategy, and corporate restructuring.
Nand is a Partner in the Gurugram office of the firm. He specialises in Banking & Finance, with specific focus on general lending, external commercial borrowings, overseas direct investments, project finance, trade finance, shipping finance and real estate finance related transactions.
Ronak specializes in the areas of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate and business restructuring, carve-out transactions, private equity, strategic investments, fund-raises, joint ventures, technical collaborations and India entry advice.
Shivani focusses on matters related to Projects and Mergers & Acquisitions.
Venkatesh practices Corporate and Civil laws with a focus on Infrastructure, Energy and Foreign investment.