Areas of expertise
Recent work
Rob has broad corporate and corporate finance experience, with a focus on public takeovers, international private M&A and equity capital markets.
Highlights include advising:
- RSA Insurance Group plc on its £7.2bn recommended cash offer by a consortium of Intact Financial Corporation and Tryg A/S, and on the sale of its operations in the Baltics and Poland
- Royal Dutch Shell plc in relation to its £50bn recommended cash and share offer for BG Group plc
- GKN plc on its defence against a share and cash unsolicited offer by Melrose Industries plc, including its proposed combination of its automotive business with Dana Inc
- Compagnie Financière Richemont on various matters, including its offer to acquire Italian-listed Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, its global strategic partnerships with Alibaba, Farfetch and Alabbar, its acquisition of Watchfinder.co.uk and the listing of Reinet Investments on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
- Centrica plc on various matters, including the sale of its North American business, Direct Energy, to NRG Energy, Inc. for $3.625 billion, its unrecommended takeover of Venture Production and the combination of its European oil and gas exploration and production business with Bayerngas Norge AS and related matters
- Mediclinic, and its major shareholder Remgro Limited, on its combination with Al Noor and London listing and its recommended cash offer by Remgro and MSC
- Homeserve, Sophos, Merlin, esure, Goco Group and Novae on their recommended cash offers
- esure on a range of matters including its IPO and the demerger of GoCompare
- Coca-Cola Europacific Partners on its acquisition of Australian listed Coca-Cola Amatil Limited, its joint venture with Aboitiz Equity Ventures to acquire Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines and its listing on the London Stock Exchange
- Credit Karma, Inc. on the acquisition of TransUnion’s U.K.-based Noddle business
- PrimaryBid on its Series B and Series C equity fundraisings
- SWVL on its combination with US SPAC Queen’s Gambit
- Booking Holdings on various M&A matters, including its proposed acquisition of global flight booking and technology provider Etraveli from CVC Capital Partners and other minority sellers
Rob is ranked as a leading individual for upper mid-market and premium M&A deals in The Legal 500. He was commended at the 2016 FT Innovative Lawyers Awards for his work advising Mediclinic on its combination with Al Noor and London listing, which won the award for innovation in M&A.