Herbert Smith Freehills advises Bharti Group on the sale of Airtel-Vodafone to Sure

Leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Bharti Group, the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises (a leading Indian business group with world-class companies in telecoms, digital infrastructure and space communications), on the sale of Airtel-Vodafone, its telecommunications business in the Channel Islands, to Sure, a telecommunications company in the Channel Islands owned by Beyon Group.

The Bharti Group owns significant interest or operates telecoms businesses across Asia and Africa, including Bharti Airtel (listed in India), Africa Airtel (listed in the UK and part of the UK’s FTSE 100) and Eutelsat (listed in France and the UK).

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by Corporate partner Siddhartha Shukla, together with partners Alan Montgomery, Josh Lom, David Coulling, Veronica Roberts and Miriam Everett.  The wider team included senior associates Raj Mathew, Arijeet Mukherjee, Sam Tappenden, Perminder Gainda, David Andrews and Christon Shenolikar and associate Erika Joseph.

Siddhartha Shukla said: “We are delighted to have advised our long-standing client Bharti Group on this deal which involved a complicated regulatory process.  The transaction demonstrates our cross-practice excellence and expertise advising on milestone deals in the telecoms industry.”