Biography
He regularly advises clients including TCV, Blackstone Growth, OMERS Private Equity, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, A&M Capital Europe, Access Industries and their portfolio companies on their transactions.
Simon is listed as a Leading Individual for Private Equity in Legal 500 UK 2022 where he is noted by a client as “an exceptionally creative and clever thinker who is able to articulate ideas very clearly, coming up with creative solutions... Simon provides clear and concise advice… He is a joy to work with and an outstanding lawyer leading his field”. He has been recognised as a leading lawyer for Private Equity by Chambers UK 2020, where clients describe him as "extremely pragmatic and practical," and takes “a good commercial approach to everything”, and he is ranked as Highly Regarded for Private Equity in IFLR 1000 UK 2021. Simon was previously included Financial News’ inaugural “40 Under 40 – The Rising Stars of Legal Services” list for lawyers across the UK and Europe.
Experience includes advising:
- Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board: on the acquisition of Logoplaste group; as part of a consortium, on the £4.1 billion takeover of Inmarsat plc in one of the largest UK take-privates of 2019; its staged acquisition of the OGF group in France from Pamplona Capital; portfolio company Busy Bees on its acquisitions of Treetops Nurseries and BrightPath Early Learning; sell down of an interest in Busy Bees to Temasek; its acquisition of a significant minority interest in the Lowell Group; and on the acquisition and sale of Acorn Care and Education
- OMERS on: its acquisitions of Alexander Mann Solutions; acquisition and sale of Civica; acquisition of V.Ships; and acquisition of a stake in Brit plc
- Blackstone Growth: who, together with EQT Growth, participated in a $450 million funding round for Epidemic Sound that valued Epidemic at $1.4 billion; and as lead investor in a $800 million Series C funding round for Mollie which values the company at $6.5 billion
- TCV as lead investor on: the Series E funding round for Revolut, making it one of Europe’s most valuable fintech groups; its Series D investment in WorldRemit; and its acquisition of Retail Merchant Services
- HM Government on its investment along with Bharti Global Limited to provide more than USD$1 billion to acquire OneWeb and fund the full restart of its business operations
- A&M Capital Advisors Europe on its acquisition of Ayesa Inversiones, and portfolio company Bollé Brands, Inc. on its take-private of SPY Inc.
- Investor AB on the sale of its stake in Three Scandinavia's tower business to CK Hutchison Networks, the holder of interests in European telecom tower assets and businesses, as part of CKH Networks' sale of its European telecom tower network to Cellnex Telecom
- Berkshire Partners on their acquisition of Teraco
- Real Capital Analytics on its acquisition of Datscha
- The ad hoc committee of creditors of KCA Deutag on its restructuring