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 by Legal 500 UK for Corporate Tax, Tax Litigation and Employee Share Schemes, where he is praised as a "a thoughtful and detailed tax practitioner who is extremely knowledgeable and user-friendly". He is also recognised for Tax in Chambers UK, where clients commend him for being a "subject expert", who “cuts to the heart of problems” and "always provides a fantastic level of service".

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