Simon Allport

Based in London, I am a partner in Bird & Bird's International Corporate Group.

I advise a wide range of clients on all manner of corporate transactions, including both public and private M&A, together with equity capital markets transactions.

As a corporate transactional lawyer, I always seek to develop a close collaborative relationship with clients I work with, so that a client's commercial objectives can be achieved cost-efficiently and with minimal fuss. I particularly enjoy working with entrepreneurs or as an integral part of corporate clients' executive management teams, helping them to implement corporate strategies over extended periods of time (be it programmes of acquisitions, divestments or corporate restructurings).

With more than 25 years' experience, I have helped numerous clients achieve their corporate objectives through corporate transactions. I have a particular expertise in public takeovers, having spent several years working on secondment at the UK's Takeover Panel earlier in my career.

As much of Bird & Bird's transactional work is cross-border, it is invaluable to have a strong knowledge of this space when it comes to in-bound M&A work. Therefore, I combine my general capital markets work (advising both issuers and banks) with advising on different takeover situations, including acting for bidders, targets, their financial adviser and also the Takeover Panel itself.

As a sector-focused law firm with which places an emphasis on technology and innovation, most of Bird & Bird's clients are passionate about what they do, so I always get to work with an array of interesting people. Although clients I act for span a variety of sectors, I have a particular focus on the aerospace and aviation, life sciences, and financial services sectors.

You'll find me ranked as a leading individual for corporate finance work by Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500.

• Stanley Gibbons Group plc: advising AIM listed specialist stamps and coins retailer in connection with an extended divestment and restructuring programme, including a business restructuring, a series of disposals of non-core businesses, a joint venture to create the Baldwins of St James auction business, a formal sale process under the Takeover Code, an administration of an insolvent subsidiary and a resultant restructuring of bank debt and private equity investment arranged by Phoenix Asset Management (including a waiver of rule 9 of the Takeover Code).
• Tomorrow London Holdings Limited: advising management team in relation to an MBO and related private equity investment into the Tomorrow London Group by Three Hills Capital, followed by advising Tomorrow London on a series of joint ventures for the development of particular fashion brands, including 'A-Cold-Wall'.
• Evolution Group plc: advising former FTSE 250 listed UK investment bank on a series of acquisitions (including the public takeover of Beeson Gregory, the acquisition of Williams de Broe and the acquisition of certain businesses of Singer & Freidlander out of administration), followed by the subsequent takeover of Evolution by Investec.
• Innovata plc: advising fully listed biotech company (then ML Laboratories) on a program of acquisitions, including the reverse takeover of Innovata, followed by the takeover of Innovata by another listed biotech company, Vectura Group plc.
• Alternative Networks: advising fully listed telecoms company on its recommended takeover by Daisy Intermediate Holdings Limited.