Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co Advises NewsCorp In USD 55 mn Investment Into Proptiger.Com And The Acquisition Of Housing.Com

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co acted as the legal advisor to NewsCorp in the transaction involving acquisition by Elara Technologies Pte. Ltd. (the Singapore based parent entity operating the Proptiger.com and Makaan.com portals through its Indian subsidiaries) of majority shareholding in Locon Solutions Private Limited (which operates the Housing.com portal), coupled with an investment of USD 50 mn by Australia's REA Group and USD 5 mn by Softbank into Elara. PropTiger.com andHousing.com are two of India’s leading online real estate service providers, and will together become India’s largest online real estate services company.

The General Corporate Practice of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised on all aspects of the transaction including the structuring, negotiations, drafting and finalization of the transaction documents. The transaction team was led by Mr. Shuva Mandal, Partner, National Practice Head, General Corporate, M&A & Private Equity; and included Aayush Kapoor, Principal Associate; Sayak Maity, Principal Associate – Designate; and Vasundhara Garg, Senior Associate.

As a part of the transaction, Elara has acquired majority shareholding in Locon, along with affiliates of REA Group Limited and Softbank Group Corp investing US$50 million and US$5 million, respectively, into Elara.

The deal was signed on January 10, 2017.