Stephen specialises in corporate and securities law for both listed and private companies, including M&A and ECM transactions.

Stephen has advised on some of the largest corporate transactions in recent years, including takeovers, mergers, acquisitions, cross-border transactions, corporate migrations and inversions, IPOs, rights issues, public offerings, reorganisations and joint ventures and acts as relationship partner to some of Ireland’s leading companies.  He has particular expertise in corporate transactions in the industrial, financial, FinTech, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals sectors, as well as corporate inversions, redomiciliations and migrations into Ireland. He has also had a key role in leading some of the highest profile contested and hostile takeover transactions in recent years, with mandates spanning both the defensive and bidder side.

Relevant Experience

• Advised on market-leading public takeovers: International Paper on its $9 billion offer for Smurfit Kappa; Tyco on its $16 billion merger with Johnson Controls; Covidien on its $46 billion merger with Medtronic; Mallinckrodt on its $8 billion merger with Questcor; Allergan’s $150 billion inversion merger with Pfizer; Mylan’s $27 billion offer for Perrigo; Mallinckrodt’s $2.4 billion takeover of Cadence; Mallinckrodt’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Ikaria
• Advised on leading cross-border private M&A transactions: Eir on its €3.5 billion sale to NJJ, Greencore on its $1 billion sale of Greencore USA; Johnson Controls on its $13 billion sale of Power Solutions; TE Connectivity on its $895 million acquisition of Creganna; the Irish Stock Exchange on its €170 million sale to Euronext; Air France on its sale of CityJet; Carlyle on its $8 billion acquisition of Veritas; Eir on its €4 billion restructuring and acquisition by lenders; Greencore’s $750 million acquisition of Peacock Foods; Eir on its acquisition of Setanta Sports
• Advised on leading ECM transactions: Bank of Ireland on its €14 billion of capital raising, and subsequent sale by the Irish State of its €3.5 billion preference shareholding; Greencore on its £440 million rights issue; UBS’s holding company restructuring using an Irish prospectus structure; Bank of Ireland’s €11 billion holding company scheme of arrangement; Johnson Controls’ $4 billion modified Dutch auction tender offer; Greencore’s £500 million return of capital
• Advised on the IPOs of Aer Lingus, Mallinckrodt and TVC Holdings
• Advised on the corporate spin-offs of Kantar from WPP, Mallinckrodt from Covidien and Eaton’s lighting business
• Advised on the corporate migrations to Ireland of a number of NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies, including Accenture, Ingersoll-Rand, Warner Chilcott, TBS Shipping and Covidien
• Advised on numerous joint ventures, including the We.Trade fintech blockchain joint venture between KBC, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Société Générale, Unicredit, Banco Santander and Nordea; the Mosaic mast sharing joint venture between Eir and Hutchison Whampoa/3; the Netshare asset sharing joint venture between Eircom and O2; the Molecular Medicine Ireland joint venture between five Irish third level institutions
• Advised on resolution planning and contingency capital raising for several financial institutions
• Advised Patrick McKillen on the defence of the takeover bid for the Claridge’s Hotel Group