Expertise
Simon is a corporate partner based in London and regularly advises public companies on the full range of transactions on the Main Market and AIM. He has particular expertise in public M&A having recently returned from a two year secondment as Secretary to the Takeover Panel, where he was responsible for regulating the most significant recent M&A transactions, such as AB InBev’s £79bn offer for SAB Miller, SoftBank’s £24.3bn acquisition of ARM Holdings and Kraft Heinz’s abortive approach for Unilever. He was also involved in all the major decisions and policies made during that time. As a consequence, he has a unique insight into the manner in which the Takeover Code is applied by the Panel on a day to day basis.
Recent transactions include advising:
- GVC Holdings plc on its up to £4 billion takeover of Ladbrokes Coral Group plc;
- Rathbone Brothers plc on the acquisition of Speirs & Jeffrey and related £60m fundraise
- DBAY Advisors on its £98.7m takeover offer for Harvey Nash Group plc
- Artilium plc on its US$104m cash and share takeover by Pareteum Corporation
- GVC Holdings plc on the £1.1 billion takeover of bwin.party Digital Entertainment plc and the £485m takeover with William Hill for Sportingbet plc
