Simon Toms

Mr. Toms was ranked as a leading individual for high-end M&A and fintech in The Legal 500 UK 2024 and has been recognized by IFLR1000. He also has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in Band 1 of the Corporate, Securities & Financing category in Chambers FinTech, in which clients have said he is “technically incredibly strong” and on the “shortlist for who can deliver when it matters most.” Mr. Toms previously served as general counsel at News International (now News UK) between August 2011 and April 2012.

Mr. Toms’ experience includes advising:

• Intact Financial Corporation and its subsidiary, Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Limited, on:
  • their $648 million acquisition of the brokered commercial lines operations of Direct Line Insurance Group plc
  • the sale of its retail motor insurance business to Atlanta Group Limited
• Global Auto Holdings Limited on its $654 million recommended cash acquisition of Lookers plc
• Convera on its $910 million acquisition of The Western Union Company’s business solutions division, one of the world’s largest nonbank providers of cross-border payment and foreign exchange solutions
• Visa Inc. on its €1.8 billion acquisition of Tink AB
• Electronic Arts Inc. on its:
  • $1.2 billion recommended cash offer for Codemasters Group Holdings plc
  • $1.4 billion acquisition of Playdemic Ltd. from Warner Bros. Games and AT&T Inc.
• Netflix, Inc. on its acquisition of The Roald Dahl Story Company Limited, which manages the literary works, copyrights and trademarks of author Roald Dahl
• RMG Acquisition Corporation II on its $8 billion business combination with ReNew Power, India’s leading renewable power company. This was the first-ever de-SPAC transaction involving an Indian company
• a bank consortium consisting of BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan on their Series B investment in blockchain market infrastructure platform HQLAx
• Zelon Holdings Inc. on its participation in Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings plc’s capital raise
• Zuber and Mohsin Issa, the owners of EG Group, and TDR Capital LLP on their acquisition of a majority stake in ASDA Group Limited from Walmart Inc.
• Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. on its $1.4 billion sale of zColo to Databank
• Halewood Artisanal Spirits plc on the sale of its Lambrini and Eisberg brands to Accolade Wines Limited and Schloss Wachenheim, respectively
• Iceland Foods on the acquisition, by founder and Executive Chair Sir Malcolm Walker CBE and CEO Tarsem Dhaliwal, of a 63% stake in Iceland Foods from Brait, a South African private equity fund

Mr. Toms’ experience prior to joining Skadden includes advising:

• 21st Century Fox Inc. on its $30 billion bid for Sky plc
• TransferWise (now Wise) on a secondary sale
• HP on its £380 million acquisition of Apogee Corporation Limited
• Cerberus Capital Management on its $1.2 billion acquisition of HSH Nordbank alongside consortium partners
• IHS on its joint venture with MTN to acquire 9,000 mobile phone towers and IHS’ associated $2.6 billion fundraising
• a consortium of leading financial institutions on a $107 million investment in R3, a distributed ledger technology platform for financial services
• 21st Century Fox on its $9.3 billion sale of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland to Sky plc
• Toyota on the formation of Toyota Connected Europe
• News UK on its participation in digital ad platform the Ozone Project, alongside the Telegraph Media Group, Guardian Media Group and Reach plc
• Cisco on its $700 million acquisition of Acano, a leading video conferencing and collaboration service provider
• Circassia Pharmaceuticals on its acquisitions of Aerocrime AB and Prosonix Limited and its associated £275 million placing and open offer
• Virgin Active on the sale of an 80% majority stake to Brait for £682 million
• Clear Channel on the sale of its stake in ARN to APN for $246 million
• Deepmind Technologies on its $500 million sale to Google Inc.
• News Corporation on its separation into two independently listed companies, 21st Century Fox and News Corporation