Areas of expertise
Recent work
Steve is the Senior Partner of the firm. He headed our Mergers and Acquisitions practice from 2001 to 2016. He has a general corporate and M&A and investigations practice, with particular experience in takeover bids and other Stock Exchange related work.
Steve acts for a number of listed companies including FTSE 100 clients Aviva, Barratt Developments, BAT, Centrica, Diageo, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, International Airlines Group, Reckitt Benckiser, Rolls-Royce and WPP and FTSE 250 clients Big Yellow Group, Morgan Advanced Materials, Morgan Sindall and Spectris.
Highlights include advising:
- The Walt Disney Company on its acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox and on its involvement in the takeover battle for Sky plc
- Rolls-Royce on its investigation by the SFO, DoJ and MPF and subsequent Deferred Prosecution Agreements and on its 2020 rights issue and recapitalisation package
- BAT on its investigation by the SFO
- ARM Holdings on the offer by SoftBank
- Cadbury on the hostile offer by Kraft
- Shire on the offer by Abbvie
- Autonomy on the offer by Hewlett-Packard
- British Airways on its merger with Iberia and its abortive merger with Qantas
- Cazenove on the merger of its investment banking business with J P Morgan
- PSA on its offer for P&O
- Songbird on its offer for Canary Wharf
- The takeovers/mergers of former ITV companies LWT, Thames, Westcountry, HTV and Carlton
- Westland on its 1986 restructuring
Steve worked in our former New York office from 1989 to 1990. He is the author of ‘Takeovers’ (PLC Publications 1997).