Areas of expertise
Recent work
Charles was called to the tax bar before later joining Slaughter and May and converting to become a solicitor. He advises businesses on all areas of tax law. His practice includes advising on tax consultancy matters, a wide range of transactions (including public and private M&A, debt and equity markets transactions, and group reorganisations), as well as on contentious issues (at both enquiry and litigation stages).
Charles is a member of the Taxation Committee of UK Private Capital (formerly the British Venture Capital Association), is part of Slaughter and May’s Global Sponsors Group, and has significant experience in private equity transactions.
Highlights include advising:
- Arm on various matters, including its IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the establishment of a $1.5 billion joint venture for Arm's semiconductor technology in China
- Aviva on various matters, including the acquisition of AIG’s UK protection business and the sales of its businesses in Poland and France
- BlackRock on various matters, including a consortium purchase of an equity stake in Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited
- Blackstone on various matters, including the formation of Indurent through the combination of the Industrials REIT and St. Modwen Logistics businesses
- Compagnie Financière Richemont on its global strategic partnerships with Alibaba and Farfetch and its sale of YOOX Net-a-Porter to Mytheresa
- Corsair and Palamon on the partial sale of their interests in Currencies Direct and concurrent minority investment by Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities Fund
- Daily Mail and General Trust plc on the US$7.0 billion business combination of Cazoo with the AJAX 1 SPAC
- Davidson Kempner on its acquisition of Swire Energy Services
- Fortress on its acquisition of Poundstretcher
- GHO Capital on its increased investment in Sterling Pharma
- INEOS Enterprises on various matters, including the sale of its composites business to KPS Capital Partners LP
- Legal & General on various matters, including the sale of the UK house builder CALA Group to an entity owned by funds managed by Sixth Street Partners and Patron Capital
- Nationwide Building Society on its recommended acquisition of Virgin Money UK PLC
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe on the acquisition of up to a 25% shareholding in Manchester United
- 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
- Vodafone on its sale of Vodafone Italia to Swisscom
- Walmart on its sale of Asda
- Whitbread plc on the sale of Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company for £3.9bn and a subsequent return of value to shareholders