Caroline is a corporate lawyer with highly-regarded expertise in mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions including management team investment structures, angel and venture capital investments (for investors and investees) and cross-border corporate reorganisations. With significant experience advising alongside tax advisers and accountants, she acts for a range of clients including private companies, entrepreneurs, management teams and (on corporate reorganisations in particular) multinationals and listed groups.
Expertise
- Analytical legal due diligence and vendor assistance/preparation for sale
- Buy-side and sell-side mergers and acquisitions
- Business and asset sales and purchases
- Private equity transactions, including advising investors, target companies and management teams
- Early-stage investments, including advising investors and entrepreneurs
- Complex technical company law
- Corporate reorganisations for tax and/or strategic planning, including:
- Share capital reorganisations including capital reductions, share buybacks and debt capitalisations
- Share and asset transfers
- Intra-group debt, finance and interest structures
- Multinational group structures
- Cash repatriation
Experience
Private Equity Transactions
- Acting for vendors on £40m partial sale to private equity investor of global logistics company.
- Acting for management team on £10m, debt-funded MBO of UK-based manufacturing company, including advising on management equity participation and ongoing legal issues.
- Acting for management team on £100m leveraged private equity acquisition of UK retail group, including advising on equity participation, warranties and disclosures, and leaver issues.
- Advising management team on equity participation, warranties and disclosures, on £200m secondary LBO, having advised the team on its prior MBO and IPO.
- Advising management team on equity participation, warranties and disclosures on £1bn+ secondary LBO.
- Global legal due diligence project for private equity investor on acquisition of multinational motor industry company.
- Advising numerous entrepreneur and founder teams in tech and other sectors on seed, Series A and Series B funding rounds.
Acquisitions & Disposals
- Advising non-UK listed purchaser on £3m acquisition of global manufacturing company.
- Advising large privately held group on complex pre-acquisition reorganisation and on subsequent share-for-share acquisition by UK listed buyer.
- Vendor due diligence on disposal of regional international airport.
- Acting for founders and optionholders on £20m trade disposal of tech start-up.
Multinational Group Structures
- Implementation of CGT rate-management structures for individuals anticipating business or share disposals.
- Implementation of global IP structure for multinational group.
- Implementation of global principal structure for multinational energy company.
- Numerous domestic and multinational group reorganisation projects. including debt, equity and asset structures and Eurobond issues.
Beauty
- Acted for BeautyMART on incorporation, successive fund-raising rounds and ongoing commercial and corporate issues including concession arrangements with Harvey Nichols and Top Shop, trade mark registration and acquisition of domain name.
- Acted for Brandstand Communications Limited (beauty sector-focused PR agency) on all commercial and corporate issues including equity-for-fees arrangements with its clients.
- Advised the British Beauty Council, the national representative body for all aspects of the hair and beauty industry, on all aspects of its structure and governance.
- Advised the founders of Rococo nail products on their acquisition by SpaceNK.
- Advised Eve Snow on early-stage fundraising and later solvency issues.
Other
- Numerous early-stage and start-up projects including advising on shareholders’ agreements, service agreements etc.
- Acted for sellers of a multi-home group of care homes specialising in mental health conditions including dementia.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Career
Caroline qualified as a solicitor in 1995. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2010, she worked at the following firms:
- PwC Legal
- Dickinson Dees
- Herbert Smith