Sally Evans
Overview
Sally stands out as a result of her detail-oriented approach in applying the competition FDI filing regimes and her tenacity in ensuring with appropriate parties that responses are exhaustive and drafted in a clear, concise manner.” - Chambers UK, 2024
Sally is a partner in the Antitrust and Competition Team based in London. Her practice covers merger control, cartel investigations and compliance advice.
Sally has extensive experience in managing multi-jurisdictional merger reviews and regularly represents private equity clients, corporates and financial institutions before the European Commission and UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”). Sally is dual qualified in England & Wales and Brussels.
Sally has been named as one of Global Competition Review’s “40 Under 40” in their quadrennial survey of the top young antitrust lawyers in the world (2020). Who’s Who Legal recognized Sally as a Thought Leader in ‘Competition’ (2022). Chambers and Partners (2024) have recognised Sally for her “details-oriented approach” and “timely and commercial” practical advice. The Legal 500 (2024) has recognised Sally as an “excellent” and “technically skilled” partner and has listed her as a “Leading Lawyer” for EU and Competition law.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Sally has practiced competition law in Brussels and Beijing and also gained experience in-house.
Sally regularly represents pro bono clients in unpaid wages claims cases.
Experience
Representative Matters
While at Kirkland, Sally's representative matters have included:
- WHP Global — joint acquisition of rag & bone.
- Transom Capital Group and Angeleno Group — sale of Locana.
- Financial creditors of Celsa Group — first Spanish restructuring plan.
- Transom Capital Group — sale of Mackie to RØDE.
- Olympus — sale of AmSpec.
- Ares Management — acquisition of T.A. Systems.
- Instructure Holdings — acquisition of Parchment.
- Thoma Bravo and Exostar — sale of Exostar.
- Hipgnosis Songs Capital — proposed acquisition of 29 music catalogs from SONG.
- Thoma Bravo and its portfolio company J.D. Power — investment in AutoVista.
- Oaktree Capital Management and its portfolio company Boardriders — sale to Authentic Brands.
- Energy Capital Partners — combination with Bridgepoint.
- BC Partners — sale of IMA Group to BDT & MSD Partners.
- GIC — long-term minority investment in Messer Group.
- Thoma Bravo — acquisition of Anaplan for $10 billion.
- Noble Corporation — combination with Maersk Drilling, subject to a Phase I remedy agreed with the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
- Madison Dearborn Partners and Thoma Bravo — sale of Syntellis Performance Solutions.
- Thoma Bravo — the sale of Imperva to Thales for $3.6 billion.
- BC Partners — sale of a minority stake in PetSmart to asset manager Apollo.
- Adenza — acquisition by NASDAQ for $10.5 billion.
- JBT Corporation — sale of its AeroTech business.
- A consortium led by EQT — £4.5 billion recommended cash offer for Dechra Pharmaceuticals.
- Triton Partners — creation and close of Triton IV Continuation Fund.
- Boardriders — purchase offer from Authentic Brands.
- Stone Point — strategic investment in Lincoln Property Company.
- Thoma Bravo — acquisition of Magnet Forensics Inc.
- Thoma Bravo — acquisition of Coupa Software.
- Thoma Bravo — acquisition of CHAS.
- Olympus Partners — agreement to sell Liquibox to Sealed Air Corporation.
- Thoma Bravo — acquisition of UserTesting.
- Redwire, a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners — acquisition of QinetiQ Space.
- Thoma Bravo and Frontline Education — $3.725 billion sale to Roper Technologies.
- Investindustrial — a series of U.S. transactions.
- Triton Partners — sale of Ewellix.
- EQT — the £650 million acquisition of SPT Labtech.
- Thoma Bravo — a strategic growth investment in Circle Cardiovascular Imaging, the global leader in cardiovascular imaging solutions.
- EQT — the €6.8 billion acquisition of Baring Private Equity Asia, a leading private markets investment firm.
- Summit Partners — the sale of Viroclinics-DDL, a virology contract research organisation, to Cerba Healthcare.
- Alpine Investors and its portfolio company Alpine Software Group — the acquisition of Sendible, a leading UK social media management and data analytics provider.
- Inflexion — a re-investment in the British Engineering Services Group, a specialist in engineering testing, inspection and consultancy services.
- HPS Investment Partners — the investment into the UK wealth management division of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc.
- Thoma Bravo — the $10.2 billion acquisition of RealPage.
- Thoma Bravo — the $11 billion sale of Ellie Mae to Intercontinental Exchange.
- Intelsat — the $400 million acquisition of the Commercial Aviation Business of Gogo.
- EQT Credit — the investment in and the restructuring and recapitalization of ACPS Automotive.
- EQT — the sale of its Credit business to Bridgepoint.
- Tokio Marine HCC — the acquisition GCube, a managing general agent in the insurance sector.
- BC Partners — the acquisition of Keesing, a leading European braintainment business, from Ergon Capital and Mediahuis.
- EQT — the acquisition of IFS AB, a leading software provider, alongside TA Associates.
- Hospital Topco (majority owned by Centerbridge and KKR) — the UK merger control aspects of the c.£1.8 billion disposal of BMI Healthcare and the GHG Group.
- Triton Partners — the acquisition of the tour operating activities of Corendon and combination with Sunweb.
- Ingersoll-Rand plc — the $1.45 billion acquisition of Precision Flow Systems.
- EQT — the acquisition of Dellner Couplers, a global market leader in couplers, gangways and adjacent products for passenger rail rolling stock.
- EQT — the acquisition of Acumatica, a US-based and fast-growing software as a service company, which provides customers with true cloud Enterprise Resource Planning solutions.
- EQT— led consortium — CHF 10.2 billion acquisition of Nestlé Skin Health, a leading global skincare company.
- EQT — the sale of a minority stake in IVC Group to Nestlé SA.
- EQT — the combination of Independent Vetcare (IVC) and Evidensia to create Europe’s largest veterinary care group.
- BC Partners — the investment in Advanced, a provider of business software solutions.
- Oaktree Capital — the acquisition by their Boardriders’ portfolio company of Billabong. The transaction involved the combination of Boardriders’ well known consumer brands — Quiksilver, Roxy and DC Shoes — with Billabong, creating the world’s largest action sports company.
- Travelport Worldwide — the $4.4 billion sale to Siris Capital and Elliott Management.
- CapVest (and its portfolio company Valeo Foods) — the acquisition of Tangerine Confectionery, the leading supplier of private label sugar confectionery in the UK.
- Bain Capital — the acquisition of DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals, a producer of sustainable antibiotics, next-generation statins and anti-fungals.
- Global Logistics Properties (GLP) — the acquisition of European logistics business IDI Gazeley from Brookfield Asset Management for approximately US$2.8 billion. Gazeley is one of the leading owners and operators of logistics facilities in Europe with a portfolio of over 3 million sq metres in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
- Tronox Limited — the acquisition of Cristal’s global titanium dioxide business in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion.
- Tronox Limited — the $1.325 billion sale of its Alkali Chemicals business to Genesis Energy, L.P.
- The Carlyle Group, CITIC Limited and CITIC Capital Holdings — the US$2.08 billion acquisition of the majority stake in a newly-formed company that will act as the master franchisee for McDonald’s in China and Hong Kong. The company will become the largest McDonald’s franchisee outside the United States.
- Solera, a digital technology group part owned by Vista Equity Partners — the £340m acquisition of Autodata, a UK provider of digital solutions to the automotive industry.
- CapVest/IBA Molecular — the carve-out acquisition from Mallinckrodt Plc of its global nuclear imaging radiopharmaceuticals division.
- Sithe Global Power — the $1.2 billion sale of interests in two coal-fired power plants in The Philippines to Aboitiz Power Corp.
- Summit Partners — the sale of Independent Vetcare Limited, the third largest vet services provider in the UK, to EQT.
- Crestview Partners — the acquisition of Accuride Corporation.
- Bain Capital Private Equity — the acquisition of Daymon Worldwide Inc.
- Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and Burton's Biscuits Company — the sale of the Cadbury business to Mondelez.
- Private equity sponsor — several acquisitions and sales in the software sector.
- Automotive parts manufacturer — investigation by the European Commission into possible breaches of Article 101 TFEU.
- Shamrock Capital Advisors in its co-investment in BTI Studios, a leading localization company providing dubbing and subtitling services in over 80 languages, with BTI owner Altor Equity Funds.
- Alimak Group — a recently listed Triton portfolio company which supplies elevators and platforms to the industrial sector, on its AUD 120 million acquisition of the Façade Access Group, a market leader in building maintenance units. This was Alimak’s first acquisition post-listing.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Sally’s representative matters included:
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Greene King plc — the CMA clearance for $1.2 billion takeover of pub chain Spirit plc.
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Bridgepoint — the CMA review of bolt-on acquisitions of UK dental chains.
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PSP — the $2 billion acquisition of Hochtief Airports.
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Kier Group plc — the £221 million public takeover of construction business May Gurney.
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Dentsu Inc. — the $5 billion global takeover of advertising firm Aegis plc.
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Anglo American/Lafarge joint venture — the phase II UK review requiring extensive divestments in cement, ready mixed concrete and aggregates.
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Mining and ports sector joint ventures — merger control and antitrust compliance advice.
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Acted for an investment bank in the European Commission competition investigation into credit default swaps.
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European Commission cartel investigation in the freight forwarding sector.
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In-house competition experience with an oil and gas major and in the UK retail banking sector.
Prior Experience
Linklaters LLP, London
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Managing Associate, 2010–2016
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP — London and Brussels
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Associate, 2008–2010
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Trainee Solicitor, 2006–2008
More
Thought Leadership
Publications
“UK Cabinet Office Publishes Second Annual Report on UK National Security and Investment Act”, Kirkland Alert, July 2023
"The EU Foreign Subsidies Regime: Final Implementing Regulation," Kirkland Alert, July 2023
“EU Foreign Subsidies Regime: Draft Implementing Regulation”, Kirkland Alert, February 2023
"EU Clears the Way for New Foreign Subsidies Regime Impacting Dealmaking in Europe", Kirkland Alert, July 2022
“UK National Security & Investment Act: First Experiences”, Kirkland Alert, July 2022
“The UK’s New Foreign Investment Screening Regime — What Dealmakers Need to Know”, Kirkland Alert, November 2021
“2020 EU Antitrust Update”, Kirkland Alert, March 2020
Competition Law Update, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, November 2020
Competition Law Update, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, June 2020
“Canon/Toshiba Medical Systems: questions raised on the legitimacy of warehousing and further enforcement of gun jumping”, Competition Law Journal, Volume 19/Issue 1., 2020
Competition Law Update, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, March 2020
Competition Law Update, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, November 2019
Competition Law Update, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, June 2019
Competition Law Update, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, March 2019
"Ripples in the Water: How Will Competition Law Apply to Pools Going Forwards?" The Chartered Insurance Institute Journal, April–May 2017
"Insurers Face Increased Costs Following Block Exemption’s Demise", Insurance Day, 12 May 2017
"Pooling Arrangements in the Insurance Industry Following Expiry of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation", Competition Law Journal, Volume 16/ Issue 2., 2017
Press Mentions
“China outbound M&A report part five: looking to Europe,” International Financial Law Review, April 29, 2022
Seminars
Speaker, Kirkland & Ellis Webinar on Foreign Subsidies Regulation - EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”) - Gearing up for Filings, February 28, 2023
Speaker, Lexology/GCR Webinar on UK merger control - UK merger control briefing: latest trends and developments, May 4, 2022
Recognition
Recognised by Legal 500 as a “Leading Lawyer” of EU and Competition law, 2024
Recognised by Chambers Europe as an “Up and Coming” lawyer of Competition law, 2023
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2008, Admitted to practice as a Solicitor of England and Wales
- Brussels (A List)
Languages
- English
- French
- Spanish
Education
- King's College LondonPost-Graduate Diploma in EU Competition Lawwith Distinction2009
- Oxford Institute of Legal PracticePost-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practicewith Distinction2005
- St. Anne's College, University of OxfordJurisprudence (Law)2004