Upasana Rao

Upasana Rao is a Partner – Corporate, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Private Equity at Trilegal and a Partner in the Corporate practice, focusing on Mergers and Acquisitions. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions, joint ventures, and corporate restructuring.

She has represented public and private companies and private equity funds in a variety of transactions including share and asset acquisitions, debt and equity investments, structured financing, mergers, joint ventures, carve-out transactions, insolvency and distressed asset acquisitions, and cross-border transactions. She advises clients on corporate governance and conflict management in their investments.

Upasana has extensive experience advising on transactions across sectors including energy and infrastructure, real estate, telecom and digital infrastructure, industrial and manufacturing, automotive, financial services and healthcare, as well as advising private equity, venture capital funds and corporate venture companies on investments in SaaS and technology, electric mobility, fintech, healthcare, education and e-commerce. She also advises on investments in impact and sustainability sectors including microfinance, affordable housing, agriculture, climate and energy transition, and waste management.

Her representative matters include advising Singapore Technologies Telemedia (Temasek group) on its acquisition of a majority stake in Tata Communications Data Centres Private Ltd and its acquisition of Cloud Cover; advising STT Global Data Centres on raising a US$1.3 billion investment from KKR and Singtel; advising Blackstone on its acquisition of data centre platform Airtunk and the development of Lumina CloudInfra; advising RMZ on its US$1.7 billion joint venture with Colt Data Centre Services; advising Stratkraft A.S on the acquisition of the Tidong 100 MW hydro power project and the Lanco Mandakini hydro project under an insolvency resolution process; advising Mitsui on its joint venture with the cold chain logistics division of Transport Corporation of India and its investment in Pinnacle Mobility (EKA); advising Wilmar Sugar Holdings on its acquisition of a controlling stake in Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd; and advising General Electric on the sale of its water & process technologies business to SUEZ, its industrial solutions business to ABB Ltd., and its intelligent platforms business to Abaco.

Upasana regularly engages with industry associations and government on policy deliberations and advocacy. She was part of the review and drafting committee for India’s new bankruptcy code and the framework for aircraft leasing in India’s IFSC, and is part of the firm’s internal Sustainability and ESG Committee.

She is ranked as a ‘Leading Lawyer Notable Practitioner’ in Corporate & M&A by Legal Era (2025–26), a ‘Leading Partner’ for Corporate M&A by Legal 500 (2026), a ‘Notable Practitioner’ in Corporate and M&A by Asialaw Profiles (2025), and a ‘Notable Practitioner’ for Capital Markets Debt, Corporate M&A and Private Equity by IFLR1000 (2018–2025). She holds degrees from King’s College London (2008) and Symbiosis Law School, Pune (2005), and has been admitted to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa since 2005.