Gavin is a senior corporate lawyer who leads our global M&A practice.
Gavin has over 30 years' experience supporting our UK listed and multinational clients, as well as private capital, on public takeovers, complex cross-border M&A and investments, with a particular focus on TMT, financial services, industrial and real estate sectors. Gavin also advises boards on strategic matters, including governance shareholder engagement and crisis management.
Gavin is a member of the governing board of our firm.
Recognised as in the Hall of Fame UK Legal 500 for upper mid-market and premium deals, in Who's Who Legal as a Thought Leader in Global M&A, in IFLR1000 M&A as "Highly Regarded", and in Chambers M&A: "at the very top of the field”; "a truly excellent M&A lawyer, with a strong commercial sensitivity and great judgement"; “very responsive and on top of the details;... classic trusted adviser"; "impressive and efficient… and is an absolute pleasure to work with"; "responsive, calm under pressure and creative"; "outstanding and able to deal with the most complex international matters in a considerate and compassionate way"; "calm, collaborative and pragmatic, which is exactly what is needed for the difficult and complex situations in which we involve him"; “very approachable and down to earth...always on hand when needed and provides great oversight throughout a complex transaction”; “Gavin is our go-to person for lateral thought and perspective on the thorny issues.”Gavin was named in 2023 in The Financial News Fifty Most Influential Lawyers, and has twice led teams winning Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards.
He advises the Government of Sierra Leone on investment matters on a pro bono basis, as part of our long-standing Fair Deal Siera Leone pro bono project. Gavin is a former Chair of The International Lawyers Project, a leading international charity providing the skills of senior lawyers to promote human rights, sustainable economic development and the rule of law worldwide, and is a member of the Investment Trade Advisory Group established by the UK Government Department for International Trade.
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
- a consortium led by Elliott and Brookfield on the US$16 billion leveraged buy out of Nielsen Holdings plc
- Elliott Advisors (UK) on its sale of Gardant S.p.A. to Italian listed doValue S.p.A. for cash and share consideration, and its participation in doValue's rights issue, for a total aggregate value of €460 million
- Hotel Chocolat plc on its £534 million takeover by Mars
- OneWeb on its combination with Eutelsat Communications valuing OneWeb at US$3.4 billion
- SoftBank Corp. on its US$514 million investment in Cubic Telecom for a 51% equity stake
- Virgin Media O2 on its £360 million sale of a minority stake in mobile towers joint venture Cornerstone to GLIL Infrastructure LLP
- Arris International plc on the US$7.4 billion takeover by CommScope Inc
- Arris International plc on its £1.4 billion takeover of Pace plc
- Bharti Group on its US$1 billion consortium acquisition with the UK Government of OneWeb from a US bankruptcy process
- Bharti Group, the UK Government and OneWeb on equity investments in the OneWeb satellite group from SoftBank, Hughes Network, Eutelsat and Hanwha totalling US$2.7 billion
- British Land plc on the creation of a new joint venture with Modon Holdings to deliver the construction of a new building, 2 Finsbury Avenue, on the Broadgate campus, on its £300 million placing to raise funds for the acquisition of a portfolio of retail parks from Brookfield
- British Land plc on its sale of 50% of the Canada Water Development Masterplan to AustralianSuper
- British Land plc on the £1 billion sale of the UBS Broadgate HQ to CK Asset Holdings
- British Land plc on the sale of its Broadgate Estates third party property management portfolio to Savills
- Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co plc on acquisition of the Finlandia vodka brand from Brown-Forman
- Hostmore plc on its proposed all-share acquisition of TGI Fridays
- IHS Holding on its acquisition of over 5,700 telecoms towers in South Africa from MTN Group
- IHS Holding on its acquisition of Helios Towers Nigeria
- IHS Holding on its acquisition of over 1,100 towers in Zambia and Rwanda from Bharti Airtel
- Pearson plc on the sale of its local K12 Courseware businesses in Italy and Germany to Sanoma Corporation, in South Africa to Novus Holdings, and in French Canada and in Hong Kong
- Pearson plc on over £650 million in share buyback programmes
- Shareholders in Kaz Minerals plc on their successful intervention its takeover by Nova Minerals
- Telefonica on the proposed £10 billion sale of O2 to Hutchison Whampoa/Three
- Telefonica on the proposed £31 billion O2/Virgin Media merger
- Willis Towers Watson on the sale of its Miller insurance business to Cinven and GIC
- Willis Towers Watson on European aspects of the proposed AON combination
- Willis Towers Watson on the reorganisation of its African business across 15 African jurisdictions
- Acacia Research Corporation on its acquisition of a portfolio of life sciences companies from the Woodford LF Equity Income Fund, and on its shareholder engagement with Arix Bioscience plc
- Blancco Technology Group plc on its acquisition Blancco Oy, on the sales of its Aftermarket Services business to CTDI Inc and of its Polish business to Mazovia Capital, and on its capital raising and share buyback programmes
- Convoy Global Holdings as major shareholder on the sale of digital wealth adviser Nutmeg to JP Morgan
- EDF on its £12.4 billion takeover of British Energy plc, the British nuclear power fleet, using innovative contingent value rights “Nuclear Power Notes”
- Hanover Investors on its public takeovers of Brady plc, Clearstar Inc, Escher Group Holdings plc, Kalibrate Technologies plc and Hydro International plc, and investments in to Elementis plc and Regenersis plc
- InterGlobe Enterprises on its acquisition of the K+K portfolio of hotels across 10 jurisdictions in Europe from Goldman Sachs
- Oaktree on its intervention on the US$3.4 billion takeover of satellite group Inmarsat plc, and on its shareholder engagement in Ranger Direct Lending plc
- Orange on its acquisition of the cloud based infrastructure and computing services business Basefarm from Abry Partners and management
- ORIX Corporation on its acquisition of a 70% stake in Gravis Capital Management
- Private capital investors on growth investments in Avalon SteriTech, Africa Internet Group, Blippar, Farfetch, Funding Circle, The Imaginarium and Secret Escapes
- Reaction Engines on BAe Systems' strategic investment and related industrial collaboration arrangements, and further equity investments from UAE Tawazun's Strategic Development Fund, Boeing Horizon X, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, the UK Government/British Business Bank and others
- Sherborne Investors on the establishment of Guernsey listed funds, and on shareholder engagement in Electra Private Equity plc, 3i Group plc, F&C Asset Management plc and Spirent Communications plc
- Sumitomo on its acquisition of the QPark Nordic parking business from KKR, on its investment into the Sekal AS drilling and analytics business, and on its investment into AIM listed Entertainment AI plc
- STV plc on its television network partnership arrangements with ITV/ UK Channel 3 network arrangements
- Tetra Tech Inc on its acquisition of Hoare Lea LLP engineering consultancy
- The UK Government Shareholder Executive on its £2.3 billion sale of The Green Investment Bank to Macquarie
- The Government of Sierra Leone on a range of governance and international investment projects, in agribusiness, energy, fisheries, industrials and telecoms, through our Fair Deal Sierra Leone pro bono project
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