About
Chris specialises in advising private capital managers on establishing and operating private funds, separate managed accounts, corporate investment vehicles and carried interest and co-investment structures.
He has particular expertise in private credit, having advised clients on the formation of blind pool funds and funds of one across a range of credit strategies and structures domiciled in diverse jurisdictions including the UK, the Channel Islands, Luxembourg, Ireland and the Cayman Islands, from traditional closed-ended to evergreen, vintage and semi-liquid.
Chris also regularly advises clients on university spin-out funding vehicles, deal-by-deal private equity structures, secondaries transactions, GP stake sales and team equity ownership arrangements, leveraging over 10 years’ previous experience as an M&A lawyer at Macfarlanes.
Clients value Chris’s creativity in problem solving and his commercial and pragmatic approach to negotiation.
Over his career, Chris has spent time on secondment at Hayfin Capital Management, in the strategic investment group of a large UK bank and at ICAP, giving him valuable insight into client-side commercial drivers and pressures.
Experience
- Advising Hayfin Capital Management on various funds and managed accounts, including the raising of its fourth Direct Lending fund, which closed with commitments of over €6bn.
- Advising Arcmont Asset Management on its spin-out from BlueBay Asset Management, with a minority stake taken by Dyal Capital Partners, and its subsequent acquisition by Nuveen.
- Advising Duke Street on the formation of deal-by-deal structures for the acquisitions of ForLife and McAvoy.
- Advising Northern Gritstone on its fundraising, which raised over £300m.
- Advising Hayfin on its agreement with Arctos Partners, a private investment firm, to support a management buyout of the business, acquiring British Columbia Investment Management Corporation's majority stake.