Mike is Head of our Tax practice. He has extensive experience advising domestic and international clients on a wide range of transactions, including public and private M&A, debt and equity capital markets transactions, group reorganisations and structured finance, as well as on contentious matters, such as diverted profits tax and transfer pricing disputes, unallowable purpose challenges and State aid investigations.
Highlights include advising:
- Prudential plc on the demerger of M&G plc and, more recently, on the proposed demerger of Jackson Financial Inc.
- Valaris plc on a restructuring, including the full equitisation of over $6.5 billion of unsecured debt, to be implemented through prearranged chapter 11 cases and one or more parallel English processes
- Oppidum Bidco Limited, a company indirectly owned by funds managed or advised by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, LLC, on its recommended cash offer for Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, valuing the latter at £6.3 billion on a fully diluted basis
- Whitbread plc on the sale of Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company for £3.9bn and a subsequent return of value to shareholders
- RSA Insurance Group plc on the £7.2bn recommended cash offer for RSA’s entire issued and to be issued share capital made by a subsidiary of Intact Financial Corporation, acting in consortium with Tryg A/S
- Several multinational groups on the EU Commission’s State aid enquiry into the UK’s finance company partial exemption and related appeals to the European Courts
Mike has been described as “a top partner and one of the most experienced and technical tax people" (Chambers, 2024). It is said that he "is incredibly bright, nimble, commercially aware and has great emotional intelligence" (Chambers, 2024). He is ranked for corporate tax in Chambers and Legal 500.
Mike contributes a regular monthly column to the Tax Journal and is a frequent speaker at various conferences on a wide range of tax issues.