Expertise

Luke is Counsel in the Dubai corporate practice and has experience advising corporates, financial institutions and private equity houses on a variety of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate re-organisations, joint ventures and disposals, including specific experience in the retail and consumer space. Luke joined Addleshaw Goddard in 2012, and has practiced in England, Hong Kong and Dubai. During 2022 and 2023, Luke worked as a Senior Legal Director at Kitopi (a multi-brand, tech powered, food and beverage operator with a valuation of over USD 1 billion), re-joining Addleshaw Goddard in June 2023.

• Advising Kitopi, as in-house counsel, in respect Kitopi’s acquisition of the AWJ group, in one of the region’s largest food and beverage transactions. AWJ had operations throughout the GCC, Europe and the USA, and the transaction was a complex multi-jurisdictional acquisition.
• Advising Kitopi, as in-house counsel, on multiple bolt-on acquisitions of food and beverage brands throughout the GCC, including KSA, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
• Advising the founder shareholder of the Elite Group, a leading fully integrated land freight and courier solutions providers in the Middle East, on its disposal to Greendome Investments. The transaction represented GDI’s first acquisition, and covered multiple geographies.
• Acting for du on the sale of their 26 per cent stake in Khazna Data Centre to Abu Dhabi’s Technology Holding Company (a Mubadala Investment Company company).
• Acting for The Carlyle Group and the founding shareholders of Nabil Foods on their majority disposal to Abu Dhabi Developmental Holdings.
• Acting for a major British plc, Reckitt, (formerly Reckitt Benckiser) a producer of health, hygiene and home products on a significant strategic joint venture in respect of its distribution operations in the UAE with the aim of consolidating its distribution network.