Biography
Martin Weatherston-Wilson is a Corporate partner in London. He advises both private equity sponsors and corporates on a broad range of domestic and cross-border transactions, including buyouts, private M&A, takeovers, equity issues, management incentive programmes, reorganisations and general corporate advisory matters.
Clients describe Martin as having “a deep understanding of the issues that private equity sponsors care about”, as well as being “technically excellent”, and a “very effective negotiator”. Others have noted that “Martin’s ability to execute complex transactions, seamlessly, is inimitable”, and he was recently featured in Law.com International’s “Private Equity Rising Stars: The Best Up-and-Coming Lawyers in the UK and Europe, 2024” as one of the brightest next-generation private equity lawyers in London.
Martin’s track record includes advising:
- Advent International on its acquisition of myPOS
- Advent International on its €1.8bn investment in Planet (an integrated payment services provider)
- Advent International on its acquisition of Hoist Group (a provider of hotel management software), and subsequent acquisition of protel Hotelsoftware
- Advent International on its $8.1bn offer for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB, an international biopharma company based in Sweden
- Aston Martin on a £200m private placement of preference shares*
- Bain Capital on its majority acquisition of Kantar (a leading global data analytics business) from WPP
- Bain Capital on its £1.2bn takeover of esure Group, the UK-based insurer
- Berkshire Partners on its acquisition and subsequent sale of Teraco Data Environments (including its retention of a minority shareholding)
- Blackstone and CVC on a series of block trades of shares in Merlin Entertainments, raising c. $2bn in aggregate*
- Groupe Fnac on its £914m takeover of Darty, the leading French retail company*
- Highland Gold Mining on its £1bn recommend pre-conditional mandatory takeover offer by Fortiana Holdings
- Howden on the establishment of Humanity Insured, a not-for-profit, seeking to build climate resilience through financial resilience
- Kantar, a Bain Capital portfolio company, on several transactions, including its sale of a minority interest in its Belgian Xtel business division; its acquisition of StepUp RGM (a provider of revenue management software); and its $375m carve-out and sale of its Health division to Cerner Corporation
- KKR on a $466m block trade of shares in Pets at Home Group plc*
- Lone Star on its £647m take-private of McCarthy & Stone
- Mangopay, a portfolio company of Advent International, on several acquisitions, including Nethone (an AI-powered fraud detection software provider), and WhenThen (a no-code payment orchestration platform)
- Planet, a portfolio company of Advent International, on several transactions, including its acquisitions of Proximis; Protel; Datatrans and Avantio (various software and payments companies across Europe)
- SEAF on its sale of ABCom to Vodafone Albania
- SEAF on its sale of American Hospital
- Sun European Partners on its acquisition of Sports & Leisure Group (a provider of artificial grass systems, headquartered in Belgium)
- Sun European Partners on its sale of Adler & Allan, a UK-based environmental risk consultancy
- Sun European Partners on its take private of K3 Capital Group, a UK-based provider of financial services
- TUI Travel on its £4.5bn takeover by TUI AG*
- Wejo Limited (formerly a connected car data marketplace provider) on its $1.1 billion business combination with Virtuoso Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored by Virtuoso Sponsor LLC
- Westinghouse on its c. $4.6bn sale to Brookfield Business Partners and pre-completion restructuring
- Water Intelligence on several placings on London’s AIM market
- Willis Towers Watson on its proposed $80bn combination with Aon
* indicates a matter handled before joining Weil.