Neil is a corporate tax partner with general experience in M&A work and with particular experience in all tax aspects of land and property transactions including construction and PFI projects, refurbishments and redevelopments, acquisitions and disposals and inward investment structures.
He has a special interest in indirect taxes such as VAT, SDLT, SDRT and the climate change levy. His practice also includes expertise in corporate mergers, acquisitions and reorganisations.
Credentials:
- Hammerson on its £584 million rights issue
- Consensus Business Group, the property company owned by Iranian businessman Vincent Tchenguiz, on a £366 million sale and leaseback joint venture with Tesco
- Standard Life on tax issues relating to their retail park and shopping centre funds with a value of £2.2 billion
- a consortium of investors on the €200 million acquisition of the Bewag Building in Berlin
- The Mercers Company on the tax aspects of the establishment of a joint venture with Shaftesbury plc to redevelop a key part of London's West End a deal worth almost £160 million
- Government Investment Corporation of Singapore on the acquisition of a part-share in an equity share leasehold at Bluewater and joint venture arrangements with the retained interest of the Prudential
- Hammerson on their acquisition of a major retail warehouse portfolio, LxB Holdings Limited, valued at £426 million
- Government Investment Corporation of Singapore on the sale and leaseback of the Merrill Lynch Financial Centre for c £470 million
- CIT on its £400 million acquisition of 28 Thistle hotels
- Rockpoint on the UK’s biggest-ever purchase of speculative industrial property. The US firm bought vacant completed schemes and development sites in Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Runcorn and Durham for £180 million from Gladman Developments, totalling 4 million square feet
- Hammerson on its conversion to a real estate investment trust or REIT. This was the first REIT in the UK and was therefore pioneering tax work
- Land Securities Trillium on its bid for the redevelopment of RAF Northolt
- Signed PFI projects for Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust, GKN Westland Limited/McDonnell Douglas Attack Helicopter, Greenwich Healthcare NHS Trust, King's College London/United Medical and Dental School relocation, Norfolk & Norwich Healthcare NHS Trust, South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, South Durham NHS Trust and University College London Hospitals
- Signed PPP project for National Savings
- HM Treasury/Partnerships UK in connection with the establishment of Partnerships UK
- Government Office for London on the creation of the GLA and Transport for London
- EDF on the £12 billion takeover bid for British Energy
- Apache Corporation on the purchase of the Forties Oil Field from BP
- Chevron UK on the sale of Gulf Oil (Great Britain) Ltd to Shell UK Ltd
- Petrobras on the sale of its UK business
- Northern Electric/Yorkshire Electricity group innovative swap of distribution and supply businesses
- Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest information technology company, on the completion of a 12 year Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) contract worth £600 million
- Hammerson, the shareholder of Prizedome Ltd, in relation to the claim by its subsidiaries including Prizedome Ltd to be able to use losses which arose prior to its entry into the group against gains realised by an intermediate holding company at a time before the intermediate holding company became a member of the Hammerson group
- Entergy Power Development Corporation on its acquisition of Kingsnorth Power Limited and subsequent (anticipated) appeal against an unusual withholding tax assessment
- Spectros International on a dispute concerning capital gains before the Special Commissioners and the High Court
- Gerber Foods in relation to an appeal to the European Court of First Instance on a back duty matter
Accolades
"a little bit like a human Swiss army knife – he understands all the different types of taxes and cuts through all the issues."
Chambers 2005
"you know you’ll get the deal done if he is on the other side”
Chambers 2005