Ross is a Partner in the Corporate department, specialising in M&A and joint ventures for both public and private companies. The majority of his practice focusses on commercial property, EdTech, FinTech and hotels. Ross has advised on Brookfield's £330m purchase of seven retail parks, Shaftesbury Capital's £250m sale of the Empress State office building at Earls Court, the £575m sale by Delancey/Ares of the Walbrook Building unit trust structure, Synechron's purchase of several FinTech businesses and advising founders in EdTech and cosmetics on their exit to trade and private equity. Hotel deals include Chelsfield's £180m sale of two Club Quarter's hotels, the acquisition of the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh from Hilton, the sale of Bovey Castle Hotel in Dartmoor, and advising Manhattan Loft on its joint venture with André Balazs for the redevelopment of the Chiltern Street Firehouse in Marylebone. Ross has also advised on numerous public company transactions, including IPOs, secondary fundraisings and takeovers.
Key Experience
- Brookfield on the £330m purchase of seven UK retail park sites from Hammerson plc, and also on its £180m acquisition of a 1.5m sqft logistics portfolio from Davidson Kempner Capital Management, and the related joint venture arrangements with Copley Point Capital
- Shaftesbury Capital on its £75.1m acquisition of the Lothbury Covent Garden Unit Trust
- Dominvs Group, the London developer, on its forward-funding deal with student accommodation operator Scape
- Synechron Holdings Inc, a digital transformation consultancy, on its acquisition of London and New York based financial services consulting firm, Citihub Digital.
- The majority shareholders of EdTech online courses platform Insendi Limited to Study Group.
- Gaming operator JPJ Group plc on its c. £490m acquisition of Gamesys, a software developer and operator of online gaming websites and apps.
- Brookfield on the purchase of Nexus Place, London for c. £169m from institutional sellers advised by Barings
- Almacantar on the £267m sale of its propco which owns 125 Shaftesbury Avenue to Savills IM on behalf of a South Korean institutional consortium.
- Aim-listed Hayward Tyler plc, an engineering company, on its all-share reverse scheme takeover by AIM-listed Avingtrans plc
- Capco (now known as Shaftesbury Capital) on its acquisition of a 50% stake in the Empress State office building at Earls Court from Land Securities Group, and also on its subsequent £250 million sale to The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.
- Chelsfield on the £180 million sale of the two Club Quarters Hotels at St Pauls and Gracechurch Street, London, to AXA/ATP.
- Capco (now known as Shaftesbury Capital) on the sale of its Olympia London exhibition business for £296m to a consortium of German institutional investors including Bayerische Versorgungskammer.
- Management of the Erno Laszlo skin care brand on its original PE investment, and on the subsequent secondary buy-out by Pollen Street Capital to CITIC
- Minerva on the joint venture between Delancey and Ares Management on the sale of JPUT structure that owned The Walbrook Building for £575m.
- Founders of Epigeum Limited (a developer of online courses for universities), an Imperial College spin-off company, on its sale to Oxford University Press.
- Seller of Bovey Castle Hotel, a 64-bedroom luxury Devon hotel and golf resort, to the Eden Hotel Collection, part of The Rigby Group.
- Manhattan Loft Corporation on its joint venture with André Balazs, and its equity financing arrangements, to redevelop the Chiltern Street Firehouse in Marylebone into the stylish 26 bedroom boutique hotel and restaurant
- UMP plc, an AIM-listed Indian-movie production company, and its independent directors on the US$45m recommended cross-border takeover by its Indian listed parent company UTV Software Communications Ltd, of the remaining 23% minority not already held by UTV.
- London Town plc on its £94.57 million AIM reverse acquisition of a portfolio of 167 pubs.
- Caledonian Operating Company Limited on the corporate aspects of its £51.7 million acquisition of the landmark Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh from the Hilton Hotels group.
- Indian-listed company, Noida Toll Bridge Co Ltd, on its US$45 million GDR issue on AIM.
Career History
Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Solicitor, Mishcon de Reya
Solicitor, Gouldens (now Jones Day)
Qualified, Richards Butler (now Reed Smith)
Edinburgh University, Economics, MA (Hons)