Biography
Mike has many years’ experience across all types of public and private transactions, with an extensive track record spanning both cross-border and domestic across a range of industry sectors. He advises private equity funds, corporates and financial advisers in relation to private equity and M&A, joint ventures, IPOs and equity issues, and corporate restructuring. He is considered a leading transactional lawyer for advising on transformational domestic and cross-border deals, with Chambers stating that Mike is a “superb choice of counsel for…high-value M&A deals”. Clients have praised Mike for his “attentiveness and versatility” and say that he "brings a depth of experience and delivers a great service."
As an industry stalwart, Mike has been named as one of FN’s “20 Most Influential Lawyers for 2021 and as one of the “Fifty Most Influential Lawyers” for 2022 whose list recognises Europe’s top business lawyers. He is ranked in Band 1 for both Private Equity and M&A in Chambers UK 2022, and as a ‘Market Leader’ in IFLR1000 UK 2021/22 for private equity, M&A, equity capital markets and investment management. He is one of just two lawyers in London to be ranked in the Hall of Fame category for both Private Equity and M&A in Legal 500 UK 2022, which recognises a small group of lawyers who have received constant praise from their clients and who are regarded by clients as at the pinnacle of their profession.
Mike has been recognised by numerous legal and industry commentators over the years, including: reported by The Lawyer as the most recommended Private Equity lawyer in the UK by general counsel; featured in Private Equity Manager magazine’s ‘Legal Power 30’ list of the 30 most influential private equity lawyers; shortlisted as one of the UK’s Top Innovative Lawyers in the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards; awarded “Partner of the Year” at The Lawyer Awards; recognised as “Deal Lawyer of the Year” at the Legal Business Awards; and listed in The Times’ “Law 100: UK’s Most Powerful Lawyers”.
Representative experience includes:
- Lone Star on the €5.2bn sale of MBCC Group, its take-private of McCarthy & Stone plc and the €1bn acquisition of a 75% stake in Novo Banco from the Portuguese Resolution Fund
- Blackstone on its investment in Dynamo Software
- GS Acquisition Holdings Corp II, a SPAC sponsored by an affiliate of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., in its $2.6 billion business combination with Mirion Technologies, Inc. (a portfolio company of Charterhouse Capital Partners)
- EO Charging on its proposed business combination with First Reserve Sustainable Growth Corp., a SPAC sponsored by First Reserve Corporation
- Sanofi on its acquisition of Kymab
- Montagu Private Equity on its acquisition of ISI Emerging Markets Group and on the acquisition of Offsite Archive Storage and Integrated Services Holdings
- Lone Star on its take-private of McCarthy & Stone plc
- Her Majesty’s Government as part of a 50/50 consortium with Bharti Global in the consortium's acquisition, in a chapter 11 court-supervised sale process, of OneWeb Global in the UK
- Exide Holdings, Inc. on its 363 asset sale in a chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding of substantially all of its international business operations to Energy Technologies Holdings
- on a number of confidential sales, acquisitions, public-to-privates, carve outs, bolt-ons and bids in Europe for private equity funds
- Froneri International (a joint venture between Nestlé and PAI Partners) on its acquisition of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Holdings, Inc.
- Campbell Soup Company on its sale of all EMEA operations of Kettle Foods and Yellow Chips
- UK Takeover Code advice to the financing banks to Twenty-First Century Fox on their bid for the share capital of Sky plc
- Nortek, Inc. on the merger with Melrose Industries plc
- Avista Capital Partners and Nordic Capital on their joint acquisition of Swiss-listed pharma company Acino
- J.C. Flowers on the acquisition of UK General Insurance Group
- THL portfolio company and payroll services provider Ceridian on its sale of certain international subsidiaries to SD Worx
- Oaktree on the sale of Fitness First, the acquisition of Sani and its merger with Ikos in Greece
- Securitas Direct on the restructuring of its management incentive plan as part of Hellman & Friedman’s acquisition of Bain Capital’s interest in the company