Freshfields, Khaitan & Co and Kirkland & Ellis advised on BT Group and Verizon’s international enterprise joint venture.

BT Group plc and Verizon Communications Inc. Have entered into an agreement to combine their respective international enterprise operations into a 50:50 joint venture.

The proposed transaction will combine BT International and Verizon’s international enterprise wireline business to create a scaled international connectivity company focused on serving multinational organisations.

The new company is expected to serve more than 4,000 customers across over 200 countries, representing approximately US$4 billion in combined annual revenue. Under the agreement, Verizon will make a US$625 million equalisation payment to BT. The transaction is expected to complete in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Freshfields advised BT Group plc on all legal aspects of the transaction.

The mandate was led by partners Meredith Bayley, Kate Cooper and Piers Prichard Jones, supported by a global team of more than 20 partners and over 80 counsel and associates. Key partners included Rikki Haria (antitrust and foreign direct investment), Paul Davison (tax), Alice Greenwell (employment), Julia Haas (real estate), Giles Pratt (IP/IT and data), Lukas Treichl (telecoms/network commercial matters) and Dawn Heath (pensions).

Khaitan & Co advised BT Group on the Indian law aspects of the separation of the respective international businesses of BT Group and Verizon Communications to form the 50:50 joint venture.

The deal team comprised Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, Prasenjit Chakravarti, Anshul Prakash, Harsh Walia, Mayank Jain, Nitish Goel, Anisha Chand, Sudipta Bhattacharjee, Shobhit Chandra, Abhisek Dash Choudhury, Sanjana Bhatnagar, Alisha Mehra, Arjyadeep Roy, Bharat Jain, Varsha Sankara Raman, Khyati Goel and Tisha Jain.

Kirkland & Ellis advised Verizon Communications Inc. On the transaction.

The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Ed Lee, Rachael Coffey, Jimin He, Aaron Eisen, Caraline Higgins, Elliot Hacker, Ayham Fakhouri, Alex Adamis, Keir MacLennan and Chris Connolly; tax lawyers Dean Shulman, Vivek Ratnam, Natalie Packard, Mavnick Nerwal, Siv Devakumar and Guntash Gill; technology & IP transactions lawyers Dan Lewis, Todd Herst, Mike James, Ryan Williamson, Molly Mahowald, André Duminy, Ben Zeris and Saif Khan; executive compensation lawyers Rohit Nafday, Anthony Ji and Nick Carter; employee benefits lawyers Justin Coddington and Caitlin Pyrce; employment & labor lawyers Jackie Heffernan and Kaitlyn Hodgman; real estate lawyers Ian Craig and Adam Amdur; environmental transactions lawyers Paul Tanaka, Caitlin Meagher-Kreisel and Carter Vella; international trade & national security lawyers Ivan Schlager, Ellie Bacon and Erika Krum; and transactional liability lawyer Hayley Hollender.