About Robert Kearns

Rob is a Senior Associate in our global transactions practice and specialises in private equity transactions.

He has worked with some of the world's leading private equity funds, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, and has acted on both buy- and sell-side mandates on transactions involving oil and gas, IT, education and transportation assets.

Rob has also advised corporate clients on their strategic M&A, both public and private, in relation to automotive, consumer retail and insurance services assets.

Recent work

• Advising CVC on its €4.5 billion agreement to acquire Unilever’s global tea business.
• Advising iCON Infrastructure and ITOCHU Corporation on their disposal of Bristol Water to the Pennon Group plc in a transaction valued at £814m.
• Advising RAC, CVC and GIC on the sale of a minority stake in the RAC to Silverlake.
• Advising Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic, as selling shareholders, on the IPO of Network International on the LSE (which gave Network International a market value of over £2 billion).
• Advising Pandox AB on its: (i) reorganisation of the Jurys Inn hotel businesses it acquired (with operating partner Fattal Hotels Group) from Lone Star in a £800 million transaction; and (ii) acquisition of The Midland Hotel, Manchester in a £115 million transaction.
• Advising CVC Capital Partners on its agreement to dispose of its majority stake in Sky Betting and Gaming to The Stars Group Inc. in a cash-and-shares transaction valued at approximately US$4.7 billion.
• Advising Hellman & Friedman on its US$5.3 billion takeover offer to acquire Nets, a NASDAQ-Copenhagen-listed provider of digital payment services.
• Advising Advent on its acquisition of Faerch Plast.
• Advising Blackstone on its acquisition of a majority stake in Cloudreach Holdings.
• Advising KAR Auction Services on its acquisition of: (i) HBC Vehicle Services; and (ii) the vehicle remarketing business of the Greenhous Group.
• Advising Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec on its investment in Bombardier Transportation.
• Advising Marsh & McLennan on its takeover offer to acquire Jelf Group, an AIM listed insurance broker.
• Advising Sterling Partners on its acquisition of eBay Enterprise.
• Advising Hellman & Friedman on its disposal of Wood Mackenzie.
• Advising the Poundland Group on its acquisition of 99p Stores.
• Advising Fajr Capital, Blackstone and Mumtalakat on their acquisition of a majority stake in GEMS Education.