Biography
Murray Cox is a partner in the Corporate group in London. He advises listed companies, financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and family offices on a wide range of M&A, corporate governance and corporate finance matters. He has deep experience working with clients in emerging and frontier markets. Murray was recently recognised among The Lawyer’s Hot 100 for 2022.
Representative experience (also from previous firm) includes advising:
- Advent International on its $8.1 billion offer for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB, an international biopharma company based in Sweden
- Ares and Goldman Sachs on their participation in CD&R’s takeover of Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, which valued the British supermarket at £10.2bn including debt
- Babylon, one of the world’s fastest growing digital healthcare companies, on the acquisition of DayToDay Health
- Independent directors of Bowleven plc, the Africa-focussed exploration and production company, on the activist campaign by Crown Ocean Capital
- Cable & Wireless Communications Plc on its $1.85 billion acquisition of Columbus International, Inc.
- Catlin Plc on the £2.8 billion recommended cash offer by XL Group
- Citibank as financial adviser to CVC in connection with CVC’s £767m offer for Stock Spirits Group plc
- Corsair Capital and Centerbridge Partners on their £600 million pre-IPO investment in Williams & Glyn, a retail banking division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc
- Corsair Capital on its investment in Axo AS, a consumer financial services company
- CRH plc on the €1.64 billion sale of its European distribution business to Blackstone
- Dätwyler Holding AG on its £615 million recommended cash offer for Premier Farnell Plc
- Depop, the British second-hand fashion resale app, on its $1.6 billion sale to Etsy, Inc
- Diageo Plc on the $2.1 billion acquisition of Mey İçki, the leading spirits company in Turkey, from TPG Capital
- Diageo Plc on its £600m acquisition of a 27.4% stake in United Spirits Limited, the leading spirits company in India, including a related private placement, mandatory tender offer and shareholders’ agreements with Dr Vijay Mallya and his associates
- Draper Gain Investments Limited, a family office, on its $187 million acquisition of International Trimmings and Labels
- Draper Gain Investments Limited, a family office, on its structured equity investment in Blue Label Telecoms Limited
- Draper Gain Investments Limited, a family office, on the recapitalisation of Cell C Limited
- Draper Gain Investments Limited, a family office, on its PIPE investment in NASDAQ-listed NET1 UEPS Technologies, Inc.
- EMPG, an investee company of Kingsway Capital Partners, on its combination with OLX Group, the online classifieds business of the global consumer internet group, Prosus, one of the largest technology investors in the world
- Ericsson on the creation of ST Ericsson, a fabless joint venture headquartered in Switzerland bringing together the ST-NXP Wireless and Ericsson Mobile platforms
- Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and its co-investors on the sale of a £2.9 billion majority interest in Gatwick Airport to VINCI Airports, and on the sale of the remaining minority interest to a continuation fund managed by GIP
- Global Infrastructure Partners on the £2.1 billion sale of London City Airport to a consortium of financial sponsors including AIMCo, OMERS, OTPP and Wren House Infrastructure
- Goldman Sachs on the sale of its interest in Boxine GmbH, a cloud-connected kid's audio entertainment business and the company behind the Tonies children audio entertainment system, to 468 SPAC 1 SE, valuing Boxine at €870 million
- Hunter Douglas NV on its £300 million acquisition of Hillarys Blinds from Ares
- IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia airlines, on the acquisition of British Midland from Lufthansa
- Kingsway Capital Partners as lead investor in a strategic financing round for Blockchain.com, with added participation from existing investors including Baillie Gifford, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital, DST, GV, Fort Ross, Access Industries, Lakestar and others.
- Kingsway Capital Partners on its growth equity investment in Powerry
- Kingsway Capital Partners on its growth equity investment in MEA Healthcare
- Kingsway Capital Partners on its $1.4 billion offer for Al Eqbal Investment Company, Jordan’s largest leveraged buyout
- Kraft Heinz Co on its $143 billion possible offer for Unilever Plc
- Market Tech Holdings Limited on the £893 million recommended cash offer by its controlling shareholder, LabTech Investments
- Mediclinic International Limited on its £4.5 billion reverse takeover of Al Noor Hospitals Group Plc
- Midlothian Capital Partners on its £103 million acquisition of Park Leisure from its founders
- Midlothian Capital Partners on its £217 million acquisition of Dobbies Garden Centres from Tesco Plc
- Midlothian Capital Partners on its £407 million acquisition of HB Education from Cox & Kings
- NewDay (formerly SAV Credit), the leading independent credit card provider, and Tosca Funding plc, on the purchase of Santander's retail co-brand credit card and point of sale finance business. The purchase involved over 3.5 million customer accounts with more than £1 billion in receivables and leading retailers including Arcadia, Debenhams, House of Fraser and Laura Ashley, amongst others.
- Newlight Partners LP in their sale of a majority stake in Hyperoptic, the UK’s largest residential gigabit broadband provider, to KKR.
- Ocado Group Plc on its online grocery retail joint venture with Marks and Spencer Group Plc
- Pembroke Real Estate on the acquisition and financing of One Grafton Street and 41 Lothbury.
- Punch Taverns on the £402 million recommended cash offer by Heineken and Patron CapitalReliance Communications on its transaction with Maxis Communications Berhad to combine RCOM’s Indian wireless business with Aircel
- Soul Foods Group, which owns and manages global food and coffee franchises including Burger King, KFC, Starbucks and Taco Bell, on a minority equity investment by Centerbridge, OpCapita and Metric Capital
- Spirit Pub Company on the £773 million recommended cash offer by Greene King
- Stephen Catlin and Convex Insurance on raising over $2.7 billion of equity and structured equity capital from a consortium of financial sponsors and sovereign wealth funds
- Tonstate Limited on the £500 million sale of the London Metropole and Birmingham Metropole Hotels
- Vodafone Group Plc on the merger of Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel
- Vodafone Group Plc on the sale of its interests in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion and on its simultaneous $84 billion return of value to shareholders
- White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. on its $805 million investment in Ark Insurance Holdings
- William Hill Plc on the £2.9 billion recommended cash offer by Caesars
- Wren House Infrastructure on the acquisition of Voyage Healthcare, a sector leading provider of care for people with learning disabilities, autism, brain injuries and other complex needs
- Wren House Infrastructure on the £1.3 billion acquisition of North Sea Midstream Partners from ArcLight Capital
- Wren House Infrastructure on the sale of a 43.1% interest in North Sea Midstream Partners to JP Morgan’s Infrastructure Investments Fund