John is a Corporate Tax Partner. His practice includes a wide range of corporate, private equity and individual tax with an emphasis on UK and international M&A, management buy-outs, corporate restructurings and reorganisations and the establishment and operation of group finance and treasury companies. John advises on investment fund formation and carried interest arrangements, asset management and new start-up business structures.
John advises on management incentive arrangements including equity participations, growth shares, ratchets and share options including implications of and arrangements in response to the remuneration and other aspects of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.
Key Experience
- Acting on advising litigation funder Therium Capital Management Limited on a market-transforming £200 million private fundraising to invest in the costs of large-scale commercial litigation, group litigation and global arbitration.
- Acting on the acquisition by the Intertain Group Limited of the Jackpotjoy, Starspins and Botemania bingo-led sites of Gamesys Limited for an initial consideration of c. £425.8 million
- Acting on advising The Freehold Corporation Limited (FHC) in relation to a substantial equity and preferred equity investment from Columbia Freehold LP, a US investment fund.
- Acting on completing a management buy-out by the senior executive team of the specialist international telecoms recruiter Penta Consulting.
- Acting on an acquisition between two large pharmaceutical companies in the region of c. £15 million, giving a base to focus on the registration marketing and distribution of medicinal products in the UK.
- Acting on the sale of Epigeum Limited, a spin out company from the AIM-listed arm of Imperial College that develops and distributes online academic courses, to Oxford University Press
- Acting for the management team of HCM Group (HCM), a contract catering business, in relation to the merger of HCM with CH&Co backed by MML Capital Partners. The deal value was £75m.
- Acting for the management of Agencyport Software Europe Limited (Agencyport Europe – providers of specialist software to the insurance market) on the £64.1 million disposal by Thomas H. Lee to Xchanging plc.
- Acting on the acquisition by Victory Electronic Cigarettes Corp. of Ten Motives Limited, one of the UK's leading electronic cigarette companies, for US$104 million.
- Acting on the acquisition by Victory Electronic Cigarettes Corp. of Must Have Limited (trading as "VIP"), one of the UK's leading electronic cigarette companies, for US$50 million.
- Acting for the founders of leading London property consultants, H2S0, in their sale to Colliers International, the global real estate company.
- Advising the Paris office of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP on the English law aspects of the acquisition by LFF Real Estate Partners Limited (a joint venture between Forum Holdings B.V. and La Francaise Real Estate Managers SAS) of Cushman & Wakefield Investors Limited and Cushman & Wakefield Investors (Finance) Limited.
- Acting for management on the £57m buy out of the Avantia Group, a financial services technology and analytics business by ECI Partners.
- Acting on the acquisition by Universal Music of the Sony Music Publishing business from Bertelsmann AG for €1.6bn and on subsequent divestment programme.
- Acting for management on a disposal by them and First Reserve to KKR of the Acteon Group for c. £600m.
- Advising on the sale by management and Bridgepoint Capital of ERM Holdings Limited to Charterhouse Capital for c. £925m.
- Acting for OFI Private Equity/Eurazeo SA on an asset (real estate) backed pension contribution arrangement and generally on acquisition structures and financing.
- Advising Transdigm Inc. on the acquisition of an airplane parts distribution business for £16m.
Career History
Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Partner, SJ Berwin LLP (now King & Wood Mallesons LLP)
Assistant Solicitor, SJ Berwin LLP
London School of Economics, BSc (Econ) Hons
Polytechnic of Central London, Diploma in Law
Queen Mary College, London, LLM (Tax)