Will is a partner in the private equity real estate team in London. He advises a broad range of investors on their UK and European real estate and related infrastructure deals, acting for PE / RE funds, pension and sovereign wealth funds, private wealth, family offices and operating partners. Will advises on a variety of direct and indirect investment structures and transaction types, in particular on joint ventures, direct and indirect acquisitions and financings, disposals, real estate M&A, minority and majority equity investments and co-investments, sale and leasebacks and development-led investments.
Will has experience across all types of real estate investments of varied risk profiles, including distressed and non-distressed structures. His broad sector experience includes logistics and industrial, health care/life sciences, residential (PRS/BTR and build to sell), offices, hotels, retail and leisure and student accommodation assets.
Will’s experience also covers real estate-related infrastructure investments including data centres, social and educational infrastructure and renewable energy investments.
Will is recognised in The Legal 500 as a “Next Generation Partner.”
Clients have described Will and the team in The Legal 500 as "Very strong, commercial and reliable, and they provide good advice.”; “Very strong understanding of the clients' commercial drivers. Able to give practical advice based on the end goal.” and “…They focus on the key issues and try to be as collaborative as possible to meet their client’s needs.”
Experience
- The Rise Fund, TPG’s multi-sector global impact investing strategy, on a definitive agreement with Stirling Square Capital Partners to acquire a majority investment in Outcomes First Group (“OFG”), a UK-based provider of best-in-class education to young people and adults with autism, learning disabilities, and other complex Special Education Needs
- Brookfield, alongside its operator and manager, Copley Point Capital, on
- a £125 million JV recapitalization of three big-box distribution warehouses from Tritax Big Box REIT
- the joint venture aspects of its acquisition of three warehouses at Heathrow airport
- Sixth Street in relation to a new 50/50 joint venture with Starwood Capital to invest in a €258 million Italian retail portfolio comprising 13 assets held by shopping centre developer IGD
- Partners Group on its programmatic joint venture with Host Student Housing to build up a £1 billion UK purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) and co-living platform and on the joint venture’s first acquisition of a four-asset seed portfolio
- CPPIB on the acquisition of a 33.3% stake in Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham, one of the largest shopping centers in the U.K., from Nuveen Real Estate, taking CPPIB’s stake in Bullring to 50% and its total investment to £280 million (c. $432 million)
- GIC in connection with its acquisition of a 40% interest in The Oxford Science Park from Magdalen College, Oxford, and on a strategic joint venture between GIC and Magdalen College aimed at accelerating major development of the science park
- Partners Group on its programmatic joint venture with ARA Dunedin, a European-focused real estate investor and manager, to build up a £250m UK logistics platform and on the joint venture’s first acquisition of a seven-asset portfolio from Regional REIT for £45m
- Sixth Street on its platform joint venture with Acacia Point Capital Advisors, a European-focused real estate asset manager, to invest in office assets in the Western Corridor of Lisbon, Portugal, and on the platform’s first acquisition
- QuadReal on the upsize and extension of the projected €4bn European logistics development platform, Continental Development Partners I (CDP I), sponsored by global logistics operator, GLP, under which QuadReal increased its equity commitment to CDP I to €800m
- Dutch pension fund APG on:
- its acquisition of a 75 per cent. interest in a joint venture with Nuveen (formerly TH Real Estate), with a combined equity commitment of c.£800 million, to develop the St James Centre in Edinburgh, one of the UK's largest private regeneration projects
- a €400 million joint venture with Hines Ireland to develop four greenfield sites at Cherrywood, Dublin for Build-to-Rent (BTR) and associated retail and leisure purposes and on a wider €700 million BTR joint venture in the Dublin area
- Arrow Capital Partners on its Strategic Industrial Real Estate (SIRE) joint venture with US private equity real estate fund Cerberus to acquire and manage, for long-term purposes, a projected €3 billion portfolio of industrial and urban logistics properties across Europe
- Proprium Capital on the £1.3 billion sale of a consortium interest in 20 Fenchurch Street, London (the 'Walkie Talkie' building) to a Hong Kong based conglomerate
- A U.S. opportunity fund with over $27 billion of assets under management on its UK and European real estate acquisitions and investments including domestic and cross-border joint ventures
- Bain Capital Real Estate in evaluating, negotiating and structuring real estate investments directly as well as through joint ventures, funds, co-investments and management arrangements with international and domestic sponsors, operators and managers
- Avenue Capital on the acquisition, financing, restructuring and subsequent sale of Hawthorn Leisure, a portfolio investment company owing c.300 pubs in the UK, for £107 million
- A variety of PE funds including Bain Capital and TPG in connection with the real estate aspects of PE acquisitions and dispositions, including structuring and negotiation of occupancy leases, acquisition and disposition agreements and sale and leasebacks
- A PERE fund on its tenant credit sale and leaseback of four prominent London based private hospitals to a healthcare investor for £227 million
- A PERE fund on the structured acquisition, financing and subsequent sale of
- Epiris on the acquisition of The Club Company, the UK's leading country club operator, from a company affiliated with Lone Star Funds
Credentials
Awards
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Ropes & Gray International LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in Delaware, United States of America and is a recognised body regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (with registered number 521000).