Oliver Walker

Oliver advises clients on tax issues principally relating to corporate transactions, with particular focus on:

• private equity and general corporate M&A transactions and reorganisations;
• corporate restructurings;
• complex equity incentive arrangements;
• finance arrangements, debt and equity capital markets; and
• VAT planning.

Oliver is also regularly involved in tax cases before the English and European Courts, and led the tax aspects of various landmark cases, including Littlewoods v HMRC, one of the largest money judgements in English history.

Oliver is recommended for Corporate Tax and Tax Litigation by Legal 500 UK, where he is noted for his “extensive experience in handling a broad range of transactions in the corporate M&A and private equity space” and described as being “thoughtful and responsive”.

Representative experience includes advising:

• A&M Capital Europe in its acquisition of a majority stake in GBUK Group Ltd and its acquisition of IB Group Ltd
• Advent International on numerous transactions, including recently on:
• the acquisition of myPOS World Ltd;
• the sale of Tag Worldwide Holdings Ltd;
• portfolio company Al Mansart Bidco S.C.S.’ acquisition of Artessence FZE and Euro Parfums FZC;
• the acquisition of a co-controlling stake in Planet Payment Group;
• the acquisition of Hoist Group;
• On the £3.8 billion recommended cash offer for UK-listed Spectris plc.
• On the $1.55bn sale of Ultra PCS to Eaton
• portfolio company Laird on the carve-out and sale of its
• Connectivity division;
• Performance Materials division to DuPont for $2.3bn; and
• Thermal Systems divisions to Bregal
• portfolio company Cobham on the carve-out and sale of its:
• Mission Systems division to Eaton Corporation plc for $2.83bn;
• Aerospace Connectivity division to TransDigm Group Inc. for $965m;
• Aviation Services UK division to Draken International (a portfolio company of Blackstone);
• Slip Rings division to Naxicap; and
• Microwave division to FCDE;
• portfolio company Transaction Services Group on the merger with Clearent (also a portfolio company of Advent International) to form Xplor Technologies.
• Bain Capital on a number of transactions, including recently on:
• the acquisition of Valeo Foods;
• the acquisition of a 60% stake in Kantar Media from WPP plc;
• the take-private of esure Group plc;
• its investment in the HSO Group.
• the £1.295 billion sale of esure to Ageas.
• portfolio company Kantar on the:
• acquisition of Numerator from Vista Equity Partners;
• carve-out and sale of its Health division to Cerner Corporation;
• various standalone tax matters.
• Brookfield in relation to the sale of Westinghouse Electric Company
• Brookfield Asset Management and Schoeller Allibert in its merger with Intelligent Packaging Limited
• CVC Capital Partners on the acquisition of RiverStone Europe from Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited
• General Atlantic on: the acquisition and sale of MeteoGroup; its investment in FNZ; and on its exit from Axel Springer Digital Classified; portfolio company Hyperion Insurance Group on its acquisition of RK
Harrison and subsequently Hyperion on the $400m investment by CDPQ; and Depop and its selling shareholders on the sale of the company to Etsy for $1.625 billion; the investment in Wireless Logic, global leader in IoT connectivity
• Global Infrastructure Partners on the sale of a 50.01% stake in Edinburgh Airport to VINCI Airports for £1.27 billion
• Howden Group (formerly Hyperion Insurance Group) on: its acquisitions of A Plan and RK Harrison; the investments by CDPQ and Hg Saturn in Howden Group; and most recently on its acquisition of Aston Lark
• KLAR Partners on the acquisition of Ventro Group
• Montagu on the financing for their acquisition of Multifonds
• Oaktree on the merger of its portfolio company Zzoomm Plc, a full fiber network operator providing fibre to the premises (FTTP) with FullFibre (a portfolio company of Basalt Infrastructure), a provider of wholesale full fibre network
• OMERS Private Equity on a number of transactions, including recently on: the acquisition, with Partners Group, of International Schools Partnership; acquisition of V.Group and subsequent sale; the acquisition and subsequent sale of Civica; the sale by Hayfin Capital Management of certain assets to The Future Fund; and on the acquisition of Alexander Mann Solutions
• Providence Equity on numerous European transactions, including recently on: its recommended cash offer for Hyve Group; its acquisition of Node4 Group; as selling shareholder and consortium member in the consortium's take-private of Masmovil Ibercom; and its acquisition of the shares in marketing services company Chime which were held by its co-investor WPP Group
• PSG on its acquisition of Sign In App; the sale of Signaturit to Namirial (a portfolio company of Bain Capital) and PSG’s reinvestment in the combined business; on the strategic growth investment in Glasswall, the sale of Mapal to Eurazeo and PSG’s reinvestment in Mapal
• PSP on a number of transactions, including recently on: its sale of Nalanda Global, S.A.; its sale of Nomentia Oy; portfolio company Shieldco’s acquisition of 10to8; the consortium acquisition of Nestlé Skin Health; its consortium acquisition of Axel Springer; its acquisitions of Keter Plastics and Azelis; and on the sale of Sky Aviation Leasing
• Securitas Direct and its core management team in connection with the restructuring of management’s equity following the acquisition of Bain’s interest in the group by Hellman & Friedman
• VINCI on the acquisition of Gatwick Airport
• the seller of the iconic Ritz hotel in London