EXPERTISE
Simi joined Addleshaw Goddard’s Corporate team in London in late 2021. Prior to joining the Firm, he briefly served as the General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer of a fintech start-up in the United States and also worked as a corporate lawyer in one of the leading commercial law firms in Africa, advising clients on a range of complex and strategic corporate finance transactions.
He supports a broad client base - from start-ups to multinationals - on their investment strategies, acquisitions, disposals, and joint venture activities. His expertise focuses on clients in the energy, financial services, and FMCG sectors in Europe and Africa (including a number of FTSE 100 consumer businesses).
With strong roots in the Nigerian market, he is a key member of the Firm's Africa Business Group where he advises development finance institutions, international oil companies and PE investors on their corporate transactional activity in the region.
His recent transactions include:
- Butter Holdings Limited on the sale of its entire issued share capital to Affirm, Inc., including associated bridge financing arrangements
- Bridges Fund Management Limited on the acquisition of EVORA Global Limited
- Utility Warehouse on the sale of its wholly-owned meter operator, UW Home Services Ltd to Lowri Beck Holdings Limited
- HSBC Bank Investment Holdings Limited on its equity investment in UK payment services company, Monese Ltd
- Associated British Foods on its acquisition of the Greencoat portfolio of equine supplements business
- BII in relation to its investment in Jacoma Estates Limited, an agribusiness operating in Northern Malawi
- Languages
- Yoruba - native
- Publications
- O. Phillips, M. Amadi, S. Somuyiwa and O. Onakoya, “Overview of Corporate Governance Regime” The Corporate Governance Review, Ninth Edition, (April 2019), Chapter 18, 273 -283.
- O. Phillips, O. Olajide, and S. Somuyiwa, “The Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018: An Ethical Approach to the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance System?” The International In-House Counsel Journal (December 2018).