Howard is a tax partner in our London office and helps clients with general corporate tax and tax planning advice.
Howard has experience advising organisations in the financial institutions, energy, utilities and TMT sectors, in capital markets and securitisations, local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings and demergers and infrastructure. Howard also handles tax disputes work, having acted in hearings before the Court of Appeal and the European Court of Justice.
Accolades
He is a former vice chairman of the Corporation Tax Sub-Committee of the Law Society's Revenue Law Committee.
Howard is regularly cited as a leading individual in Tax in the legal directories. Chambers UK highlights that "his judgement is key, you can really trust his advice," and Legal 500 calls him a "real star performer as regards structuring corporate transactions".
He was inducted in 2018 as a member of the Legal 500 Hall of Fame for Corporate Tax.
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
- Adriatic Metals Plc on its recommended acquisition by Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (DPM) for c.US$1.3 billion
- ENGIE on its £10.5 billion acquisition of UK Power Networks Holdings Limited, one of the UK's largest electricity distribution operators, from CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited
- Lloyds Banking Group on the sale of the c. £6 billion Scottish Widows in-force bulk annuity portfolio to Rothesay Life, the UK's largest pensions insurance specialist
- National Grid on the sale of its Grain LNG business to a consortium of multinational energy company, Centrica plc and energy transition infrastructure investment firm, Energy Capital Partners LLC, part of Bridgepoint Group plc
- National Grid on its divestment of National Grid Electricity System Operator Limited (ESO) to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) for an enterprise value of £630 million
- Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) on its acquisition by Athora, a leading European savings and retirement services business, for approximately £5.7 billion
- Perenco UK Limited on its successful appeal to the tax tribunals concerning entitlement to first-year capital allowances in relation to the Wytch Farm oilfield
- Phoenix on its successful Guardian tax dispute relating to Empire Life
- Sky and Comcast Corporation, on Sky’s proposed acquisition of ITV’s Media & Entertainment unit from ITV plc
- Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance arm of the Swiss Re Group, on its acquisition of QBE's global trade credit and surety business
- Tideway on the issuance of a £250 million 8-year Blue Bond, making it the first corporate to issue a Blue Bond in Sterling
- Virgin Atlantic Airways on its partnership with US alternative asset manager Apollo for a $745 million senior secured financing of Virgin Atlantic’s portfolio of take-off and landing slots at London Heathrow
- Capital and Counties Properties (Capco) on its all share merger with Shaftesbury PLC, bringing together some of London's most iconic destinations in the West End to create an estate valued at £5 billion
- Comcast on a joint venture between its subsidiary NBCUniversal (NBCU) and the MultiChoice Group, Africa's biggest pay TV company. The UK-incorporated joint venture will operate a streaming service through NBCU's Peacock platform
- Sky
- on the competing offers for the company from 21st Century Fox and Comcast resulting in the recommended £30 billion takeover by Comcast
- on its sale of a controlling stake in its online betting and gaming business, Sky Bet, to CVC Capital Partners in a deal which values Sky Bet at £800 million and on the subsequent sale of its remaining stake to The Stars Group Inc. in return for cash and share consideration totalling c. £635 million
- on its up to £7 billion acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland from Twenty-First Century Fox
- EDF and NNB on all aspects of their nuclear new build programme in the UK, including the Hinkley Point C project
- TSB and Sabadell on the intra-group project to migrate TSB from its existing IT services platform to a new platform provided by Sabadell Information Systems
- the Bazalgette Consortium on its successful bid to become the Infrastructure Provider for the £4.2 billion "super sewer" Thames Tideway Tunnel project
- TUI Travel on the £4.8 billion cross border merger with TUI AG to create the world's largest integrated leisure tourism group
- Resolution
- on its £8.6 billion merger with Friends Provident
- on the competing £4.9 billion bid by a consortium of Standard Life and Swiss Re, which was subsequently recommended and on another competing bid of £5 billion by a consortium of Pearl and Royal London, which was also subsequently recommended
- major international insurer on the acquisition of Irish Life
- TSB Bank plc on its separation from the Lloyds Banking Group, its £1.3 billion IPO and its long-term outsourced IT and business service arrangements with Lloyds post-IPO
- Lloyds Banking Group on its £560 million sale of Scottish Windows Investment Partnership to Aberdeen Asset Management
- EDF
- on the £5.8 billion sale of its network distribution assets in the UK
- on its £12.5 billion takeover of British Energy Group
- on the £2.3 billion sale of a 20% interest in its British Energy business to Centrica and its plans to build new nuclear reactors in the UK
Background
Howard has been a partner at the firm since 2001.
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