Areas of expertise
Charles was called to the tax bar before later joining Slaughter and May and converting to become a solicitor. He advises businesses on all areas of tax law. His practice includes advising on tax consultancy matters, a wide range of transactions (including public and private M&A, debt and equity markets transactions, and group reorganisations), as well as on contentious issues (at both enquiry and litigation stages).
Charles is a member of the British Venture Capital Association’s Tax Committee, is part of Slaughter and May’s Private Equity Team, and has significant experience in private equity transactions.
Highlights include advising:
- Arm on various matters, including its IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the establishment of a $1.5 billion joint venture for Arm's semiconductor technology in China
- Aviva on various matters, including the acquisition of AIG’s UK protection business and the sales of its businesses in Poland and France
- BlackRock on various matters, including a consortium purchase of an equity stake in Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited
- Blackstone on various matters, including the formation of Indurent through the combination of the Industrials REIT and St. Modwen Logistics businesses
- Compagnie Financière Richemont on its global strategic partnerships with Alibaba and Farfetch and its sale of YOOX Net-a-Porter to Mytheresa
- Corsair and Palamon on the partial sale of their interests in Currencies Direct and concurrent minority investment by Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities Fund
- Daily Mail and General Trust plc on the US$7.0 billion business combination of Cazoo with the AJAX 1 SPAC
- Davidson Kempner on its acquisition of Swire Energy Services
- Fortress on its acquisition of Poundstretcher
- GHO Capital on its increased investment in Sterling Pharma
- INEOS Enterprises on various matters, including the sale of its composites business to KPS Capital Partners LP
- Legal & General on various matters, including the sale of the UK house builder CALA Group to an entity owned by funds managed by Sixth Street Partners and Patron Capital
- Nationwide Building Society on its recommended acquisition of Virgin Money UK PLC
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe on the acquisition of up to a 25% shareholding in Manchester United
- Valaris plc on a restructuring, including the full equitisation of over $6.5 billion of unsecured debt, to be implemented through prearranged chapter 11 cases and one or more parallel English processes
- Vodafone on its sale of Vodafone Italia to Swisscom
- Walmart on its sale of Asda
- Whitbread plc on the sale of Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company for £3.9bn and a subsequent return of value to shareholders