New Eurojuris member Alpha Partners in Delhi acted for Penguin Random House Books India on the buy of prominent publisher Hind Pocket Books. Kunal Arora, Associate Partner at Alpha Partners, tells us about his work and the transaction.
Kunal Arora is a corporate and commercial lawyer focusing on advising clients on M&A, private equity investments, joint ventures and real estate transactions. He has assisted clients on all aspects relating to these transactions, including formulating legally viable structures, carrying out due diligence, drafting and negotiating transaction documents and assistance in closing related compliances. In addition, Kunal has given advise to leading investors and financial institutions on the real estate aspects concerning their transactions with developers in India.
At Alpha Partners, Kunal’s position involves supervising on all matters on the real estate side as well as the corporate M&A side alongside Akshat Pande, the managing partner of the firm. Above all, Kunal is handling clients, practising primarily in corporate transactional practice and real estate matters. But business development initiatives and the training of his team are also a part of his work. ‘As partners, we are required to focus on all aspects of the firm. Yes, it does involve a fair bit of work, but we all enjoy our job.’
Recently, Kunal Arora and his team acted for Penguin Random House Books during the acquisition of Hind Pocket Books. ‘This was a highly interesting transaction’, Kunal tells us. ‘One of the largest publishing houses in India was buying the entire business. Later on, the structure of the transaction was changed into an acquisition of the company itself’, Kunal explains.
Hind Pocket Books is one of the oldest and most respected Hindi language publishers in the country. The company has the rights over more than 2500 titles in India, including the most popular and promising authors. With the acquisition of Hind Pocket Books and its extensive list of critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles, Penguin Random House India is expanding its position in the local language publishing, which it has been developing over the past decade.
‘This was a fairly extensive acquisition. For the diligence part, the client employed two law firms, Alpha Partners and S&R, because of the quantum of the work to shorten the timelines.’ Alpha Partners’ responsibility was the verification of the target company’s individual publishing titles (which were largely in Hindi language). ‘The rights over the titles were the core business and assets of Hind Pocket Books. Therefore, the highest protection was required in relation to the contracts and related IP rights.’ Over the course of 45 days, Kunal and associates Richa Hingle, and Shreya Solenkey were based at the target company’s office, while collecting data and making all necessary observations. The internal analysis and the final report included all identified issues and gaps as well as remedial measures.
‘The assignment went very well. At the transaction stage, Penguin Random House Books was in touch on a constant basis to obtain our opinion on transactional issues regarding the analysed titles,’ Kunal remarks. With Alpha Partners acting as advisers to transactional aspects, the deal is now successfully completed.
About Alpha Partners:
Alpha Partners was awarded the best start up law firm of the year in 2015, in the third year of its inception by IDEX Legal and was ranked as a recommended law firm by Legal 500 in 2016 for its corporate and dispute resolution practices. Recently, the firm has also been recognised by IFLR1000 for 2019 edition (pending publication) for M&A, private equity and Project Development practice areas. Co-founder Mr. Akshat Pande is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer whose practice focuses on private equity, venture capital, M&A, joint ventures, exchange control advisory and debt restructuring.
Links:
Kunal Arora: www.alpha-partners.org/kunal.html
Alpha Partners: www.alpha-partners.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/partnersalpha/
Penguin Random House India: https://penguin.co.in/
Source:
Penguin Random House India, News, Penguin Random House India acquires Hind Pocket Books: penguin.co.in/news-and-press-releases/penguin-random-house-india-acquires-hind-pocket-books/
