Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

UK
Chair, Executive Committee: Alden Millard

Managing Partner (London): Wheatly MacNamara

International Offices: Headquartered in New York City with offices in Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, Houston, Texas, London, Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California, São Paulo, Tokyo and Washington, DC.

THE FIRM Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is widely recognised as one of the pre-eminent law firms in the world. The firm devotes to its clients the legal talent and skill of over 1,300 lawyers with a commitment to hard work, excellence and integrity. Building on over 135 years of experience, the firm has played a substantial role in connection with many of the most complex and noteworthy transactions and matters of the last decades. The lawyers across the firm’s 11 offices function seamlessly as a single multidisciplinary team to provide the worldwide presence and capabilities that the firm’s clients demand.

EUROPE With a presence in London for over four decades, London-based lawyers advise clients in Europe and globally under both English and US laws on a range of cross-border corporate, M&A, banking, capital markets, private funds, real estate and restructuring transactions, as well as tax, competition law and arbitration matters.

PRINCIPAL AREAS OF WORK

M&A and Private Equity: Simpson Thacher is recognised globally for its expertise on complex M&A transactions, buyouts, stock and asset purchases, restructurings, joint ventures and contested transactions. Clients include listed and unlisted companies and, financial sponsors. Recent M&A experience by the London office includes advising on Blackstone’s $63 billion take private acquisition of Atlantia SpA; €18 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in Autostrade per l’Italia and €21 billion recapitalization of Mileway; KKR’s $6.14 billion recommended offer for ContourGlobal; Cegid €6.8 billion combination with Grupo Primavera; and Baring Private Equity Asia’s €6.8 billion acquisition by EQT.

Capital Markets: The firm advises domestic and international issuers and underwriters on all types of capital markets transactions, including high yield debt and investment grade offerings and IPOs, as well as other equity capital markets and derivatives transactions. The firm has recently advised on debt and equity offerings for Aston Martin, KION Group, Logicor, Lorca Telecom Bondco, Q-Park, SoftwareONE and Stonegate Pub Company. The firm also represented Bridgepoint Group plc and Baltic Classifieds Group plc in their respective IPOs, as well as the underwriters in KfW debt offerings totaling approx. $28.8 billion (equivalent) in 2021.

Banking & Finance: Lawyers advise borrowers, credit funds, sponsors and bank lenders on a broad range lending transactions and products including domestic UK and cross-border acquisition financings, infrastructure financings, fund financings and other loan products including private credit instruments and working capital facilities in conjunction with capital markets issues. Recent representations include financings for Edizione and Blackstone Infrastructure Partners for their acquisition of Atlantia; KKR in its financings for its acquisitions of Accell Group, APRIL Group, Contabo and IVIRMA; Silver Lake in its financings for the acquisition of Facile.it and various financing transactions for Cegid Group and Zoopla; TDR Capital in its financings for Hurtigruten, Stonegate Pubs and Aggreko; Flutter Entertainment plc in its financing for the acquisition of Sisal SpA; BlackRock’s and Hassana’s $15.5 billion gas pipeline network deal with Saudi Aramco; Apax in its financing for the acquisition of Palex Medical; and MasMovil and Orange Spain financing for the $19 billion combination of MasMovil and Orange Spain.

Private Funds: Simpson Thacher has one of the world’s pre-eminent private funds practices. The practice is global in scope and covers funds with a wide variety of investment criteria, including buyout, real estate, infrastructure/energy and debt funds. The London office has consistently acted on the largest European private equity fundraisings to occur post-financial crisis, including Apax X, Astorg VII, BC European Capital X, Bridgepoint Europe VI, the seventh Cinven fund, Coller VIII, CVC VIII, EQT IX, EQT Infrastructure V and Triton V and is currently advising on some of the most high-profile European fundraisings in the market. The firm also continues to be the ‘go-to’ funds counsel for multi-strategy clients on their other fundraising initiatives.

Real Estate: Simpson Thacher is well known for its sophisticated and diversified real estate practice. The firm’s London-based real estate lawyers have been advising real estate sponsors, debt funds and asset managers since 2013, having worked on over 1,300 transactions, representing the acquisition of thousands of properties. Notable representations include advising Blackstone on several Spanish hospitality and residential refinancings with a combined asset value of €4bn; its €21 billion recapitalization of the largest last mile logistics portfolio in Europe, Mileway and its acquisition of a portfolio of logistics properties from an affiliate of Corem Property Group AB, with financing from three investment banks. The portfolio consisted of 47 logistics properties throughout Sweden, valued at approximately SEK 5.35 billion.

Antitrust & Trade Regulation: The firm is internationally recognised for its antitrust and competition law capabilities and regularly represents clients before the European Commission, Member States of the European Union, the US Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission, and other international merger control authorities. The London and Brussels-based teams provided antitrust advice for numerous leading deals, includingTwitter’s successful closing of its acquisition by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk; CSL in Its Tender Offer to Acquire Vifor Pharma; and Microsoft in its acquisition of Xandr. The firm also represents clients in high profile antitrust litigation and government investigations, such as advising ISDA on the European Commission’s investigation of OTC CDS; and certain Asian auto parts suppliers before the European Commission.

Litigation & Arbitration: With dual-qualified US and English-law lawyers in London specialising in complex international litigation and commercial arbitrations, multinational corporations across the world seek the firm’s advice on high-stakes matters when their business reputation or commercial relationships are at risk. Highlights include acting for a global investment management firm in complex, cross-border Brazilian, Cayman Islands and U.S. parallel proceedings relating to an investment in the Brazilian aviation sector; securing €134 million for Danone in an UNCITRAL arbitration in Singapore arising out of a mass contamination and product recall spanning eight countries; obtaining injunctive relief in emergency SCC arbitration seated in Stockholm; ICC arbitration for a leading pharmaceutical company; and LCIA arbitration over a major supply agreement dispute.

Restructuring: In early 2021, the firm established a London based Restructuring team with partners Adam Gallagher and James Watson. The team now comprises 20 restructuring lawyers, including Marc Hecht who was promoted to partner in 2023. The team offers extensive experience representing companies, sponsors, credit funds, banks, insolvency practitioners and other key stakeholders across the capital structure on complex distressed situations.Recent material roles on significant cross-border situations include Casino, Wittur, Telepizza, Keter, Flint and Takko.