Simon Toms

Simon Toms

Partner, Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Fintech
Simon Toms has experience in a wide range of cross-border public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures, corporate reorganizations and equity capital markets transactions, with a particular focus on the technology, fintech, media and telecoms sectors. Mr. Toms is co-head of Skadden’s global fintech practice. He also advises clients on corporate governance issues, including ESG-related matters.

Bio

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

Credentials

Education

  • Legal Practice Course, The College of Law, 2001
  • LL.B., King's College London, 2000
  • M.A., King's College London, 2024

Admissions

  • England & Wales

Simon Toms

Partner, Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Fintech
simon.toms@skadden.com