Jonathan Marks

Jonathan is head of one of our corporate groups and our insurance practice. He has a corporate and corporate finance practice and has been involved in demutualisations, fund-raisings, joint ventures and private and public acquisitions.

His recent work includes advising:

• FNZ on the sale of financial technology provider GBST to Anchorage Capital Partners
• OMERS on the UK aspects of its acquisition of a 14% stake in BRIT from Fairfax Financial Holdings
• Legal & General on a number of pensions derisking and reinsurance transactions including on a c.£310m buy-in with Reuters Supplementary Pension Scheme, its buy-out of the Commonwealth Bank of America pension scheme and several buy-ins for the The Pearson Pension Plan
• Aviva in relation to its approach to dealing with the implications of COVID-19 for its business interruption policies
• a major insurer on its offer for a Bermudian reinsurance vehicle
• a number of companies on their Brexit planning including Aviva on its proposed insurance business transfers
• Standard Life Aberdeen on the £3.24 billion sale of its insurance business to Phoenix Group
• Standard Life on:
• its merger with Aberdeen Asset Management to create Standard Life Aberdeen plc and the latter on a contractual dispute with Lloyds Banking Group / Scottish Widows  in relation to the attempt to terminate a series of investment management agreements
• its disposal of its Canadian business for CAN$4 billion
• the acquisition of Ignis Asset Management for £390 million
• its sale of Standard Life Healthcare to Discovery
• its demutualisation and flotation on the London Stock Exchange
• a number of parties on pensions de-risking transactions including:
• a major corporate on strategic issues relating to its pensions scheme including on a substantial partial buy-in using an umbrella framework agreement
  
• Philips on its £2.4 billion bulk annuity transaction with Pension Insurance Corporation
• Akzo-Nobel and ICI on the de-risking of around £3.6 billion of liabilities of the ICI Pension Fund involving transactions with Legal & General and Prudential
• Aviva on its c. £5 billion de-risking of the Aviva Staff Pension Scheme and c. £900 million RAC (2003) Pension Scheme by way of longevity swap transactions
• The Innovation Group on its £499 million take private by an entity controlled by funds managed by the Carlyle Group

Jonathan is listed as a leading individual in the Legal 500 rankings, and also ranked in Chambers, for his work in the insurance sector.

He is the author of the chapter on Corporate Governance in “A Practitioner’s Guide to Directors’ Duties and Responsibilities”, Third, Fourth and Fifth Editions.