Vinita Sithapathy

Vinita is a Partner in Linklaters’ Corporate M&A team in New York.

She advises corporate and private equity clients on domestic and cross-border M&A and investment transactions. Drawing on over 10 years of experience, she represents clients on a range of domestic and cross-border transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and sales of companies and businesses, consortium transactions, joint ventures, private investments, management rollovers, and reorganizations. She has experience working in a range of sectors including technology, infrastructure, life sciences, food and agriculture, manufacturing and consumer goods.

Work highlights

Vinita’s recent deal highlights include*:

• RWE Clean Energy: advising on its joint venture with Peabody (NYSE: BTU) to strategically advance renewable energy projects by repurposing reclaimed land previously used for mining.
• CDPQ: advising in connection with DigitalBridge’s additional preferred equity investment in Vertical Bridge and the related re-negotiation of joint venture arrangements between CDPQ and DigitalBridge, in connection with Vertical Bridge’s transaction with Verizon to lease, operate and manage 6,339 wireless communications towers across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. from subsidiaries of Verizon for approximately US$3.3bn.

• Google: advising on its:
  • US$4.5bn transaction with Jio Platforms, including investment, governance and commercial arrangements and agreements to develop an affordable smartphone with an optimized operating system;
  • US$5.4bn acquisition of Mandiant, Inc. and related transactions with Blackstone and other private equity sponsors.

• Japan Tobacco: advising on its:
  • joint venture with the Altria Group to market and commercialize heated tobacco-stick products in the United States;
  • acquisition of the Vector Group Ltd.;
  • US$5bn acquisition of the non-U.S. operations of Natural American Spirit from Reynolds American; and its
  • acquisition of Logic Technology, a leading U.S. e-cigarette brand.
• Cargill: advising on its joint venture with Continental Grain, in connection with the US$4.3bn acquisition of Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms.
• Novartis: advising on its:
  • acquisitions of DTx Pharma and another preclinical-stage biotechnology company;
  • tender offer to public shareholders of its Indian-listed subsidiary; and its
  • US$5.4bn sale of its animal health business to Eli Lilly.
•  Saint-Gobain: advising on its US$2.3bn acquisition of GCP Applied Technologies.
• Sonoco: advising on its US$1.35bn acquisition of Ball Metalpack and its acquisition of Eviosys.
• Kite Pharma: advising on its acquisition of Tmunity Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company.
• Basilea: advising on its acquisition of rights to a preclinical antifungal compound from Pfizer.
• A sovereign wealth fund: advising on its consortium with private equity sponsors to acquire 50% of a US$4.1bn infrastructure company.

• A significant minority stockholder in the U.S.: advising on the public listing of ReNew Energy Global plc through an US$8bn de-SPAC transaction.

• Western Union: advising on its US$910m carve-out sale of Western Union Business Solutions to Goldfinch Partners and Baupost.
• Jungheinrich: advising on its US$375m acquisition of Storage Solutions, Inc.
• A significant stockholder: advising on the U.S. public listing of Mirion Technologies through a de-SPAC transaction.
• Paine Schwartz Partners: advising on:
  • its acquisition of the Global ID group, arrangements with rollover investors, and subsequent add-on acquisitions;
  • its acquisition of Wawona Packing and subsequent add-on acquisitions, including that of Gerawan Farming to create a US$1bn combined business, and arrangements with co-investors and rollover investors; and its
  • merger of its portfolio company, Eurodrip, with Rivulis Irrigation.
• London Stock Exchange Group: advising on its:
  • US$$700m acquisition of Citigroup’s fixed income index and analytics business; and its
  • US$1.15bn sale of Frank Russell Company’s asset management business to TA Associates and Reverence Capital Partners.
• The co-founder and CEO of RealD: advising on its US$551m acquisition by Rizvi Traverse.
• Underwriters and arrangers: advising on equity and debt offerings by the Indian Hotels Company, Specialty Restaurants, Tata Motors and the Oberoi group of hotels.

*Includes matters handled prior to joining Linklaters.

Vinita was the co-creator and co-lecturer of the Cross-Border M&A: Drafting, Negotiation & the Auction Process course at Harvard Law School in 2018 and 2019.

Professional affiliations - American Bar Association

Vinita holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from Columbia Law School, where she was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and a Bachelor of Legal Science and Bachelor of Law (BLS LLB) from the University of Mumbai.

She is fluent in Hindi and Tamil.

• Co-author of "Chambers and Partners Energy & Infrastructure M&A Guide," November 20, 2024 (read here).
• Co-author of “Fiduciary Duties During a Time of Volatility”, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, April 7, 2020 (read here).
• Co-author of “Public Stockholders as Third Party Beneficiaries of Stockholder Agreements?”, The M&A Lawyer, July/August 2019 (read here).