Indian law firm S&R Associates has guided Data Infrastructure Trust, an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) sponsored by Brookfield Asset Management, on its 100 percent acquisition of American Tower Corp’s India operations for $2.5 billion. ATC was represented by Talwar Thakore & Associates.
The deal is set to be completed in the latter part of this year and will make Brookfield, which has completed three telecom-related deals in India in the last four years, the country’s largest operator of telecom towers.
In May 2023, Brookfield sold two commercial properties in India for $1.4 billion to a partnership between its locally listed REIT Brookfield India and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
ATC, on the other hand, will exit India after nearly 17 years. Its fortunes have floundered due to the struggles of top client Vodafone Idea, and it recently wrote down the value of the business by $322 million, Reuters reported.
The S&R team on the deal was led by partners Rajat Sethi, Sudip Mahapatra and Raya Hazarika. Partner Pratichi Mishra advised on InvIT-related matters, while partner Sumit Bansal advised on the tax components of the deal.
The TT&A team was led by joint managing partner Gautam Saha, corporate partners Swati Chauhan and Harshit Chandra, and competition partner Sonam Mathur.
