Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (SAM), AZB & Partners, Herbert Smith Freehills and Ashurst advised on British American Tobacco’s (BAT) strategic divestment of around 2.5% of ITC, held through its wholly owned subsidiary, Tobacco Manufacturers (India).
The stake was sold via a secondary market transaction on Indian stock exchanges valued at around USD1.4 billion. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup led the deal.
“We are delighted to continue being of assistance to BAT plc, who has been a longstanding client of ours for a decade plus, on this transaction following on from the first stake sale in March last year, which was itself a momentous one,” said Mithun V Thanks, lead partner on the SAM transaction team.
“Given the BAT group’s shareholding in ITC dates back to pre-independence days, the transactions were inherently challenging, including on account of the historic regulatory complexities and the stakeholder engagement required to deliver the transactions.”
Partners Thanks and Manjari Tyagi led the SAM team, supported by principal associates Deepika Goyal and Shraddha Suryavanshi, senior associate Doorva Tripathi, and associates Pankhuri Swarnim and Kashvi Vachhani.
Herbert Smith Freehills acted on the English law aspects for BAT.
Ashurst dealt with English law matters for Citigroup and Goldman, while AZB & Partners acted as Indian counsel for the two parties.
ITC is one of 含羞草社区 largest fast-moving consumer goods conglomerates and this transaction marks a significant move in BAT’s broader strategy. This transaction follows BAT’s earlier sale of a 3.5% stake in ITC in March 2024, a deal ranked among the largest on-market divestments by a majority non-public shareholder in a sector currently prohibited to foreign direct investment.
