Matthew Sinclair-Thomson

Since joining Kirkland, Matthew has been involved in the following matters:

• Advising Warburg Pincus and ArchiMed on the sale of Polyplus.
• Advising Wilshire on the launch of Wilshire Indexes.
• Advising Arsenal Capital Partners on the sale of Airnov Intermediate Holdings Corp to Colorcon, Inc., a portfolio company of Berwind Private Equity.
• Advising Actis on its equity commitment to Catalyze Parentco.
• Advising Brookfield Special Investments on its $400 million preferred equity investment in Body Contour Centers LLC, dba Sono Bello.
• Advising Lone Star Funds on the purchase of Titan Acquisition Holdings.
• Advising Thoma Bravo on Acquisition of Magnet Forensics.
• Advising Leo Holdings Corp. II (NYSE: LHC) on its business combination with World View.
• Advising KKR and Alludo on the acquisition of Nitro Software.
• Advising Likewize and Genstar on their definitive agreement regarding Genstar’s strategic investment in Likewize.
• Advising GTCR on two recent transactions including: Its strategic majority investment in Biocoat and Its Leaders Strategy partnership with Steve Powell and Mary Mattes to form Harpula Health Holdings, LLC.
• Advising Olympus Partners on its agreement to sell Liquibox to Sealed Air Corporation.
• Advising Banner Ventures Management on its Series B Investment in Manscaped.
• Advising Thoma Bravo on its acquisition of UserTesting.
• Advising MSD Partners on its strategic business combination with BDT & Company.
• Advising Red Collar Pet Foods, a portfolio company of Arbor Investments’ Fund IV, on the sale of its dry kibble pet food manufacturing business to the Colgate-Palmolive Company.
• Advising Pathfinder Acquisition Corporation on a definitive business combination agreement with Movella.
• Advising Thoma Bravo on its take-private acquisition of Mercell Holding.
• Advising KKR on the sale of Minnesota Rubber and Plastics to Trelleborg.
• Advising Warburg Pincus on the merger of equals with Norstella to form an end-to-end life sciences solutions provider. 
• Advising CPP Investments and Motive Partners on the $1.4 billion investment in FNZ, a global wealth management platform. 
• Advising Warburg Pincus on the acquisition of Pharma Intelligence from Informa PLC.
• Advising Oakley Capital on the acquisition of a majority stake in TechInsights by Oakley Capital IV, alongside CVC Growth.
• Advising NortonLifeLock on its c.$25 billion combination with Avast; including to achieve an unconditional UK Phase II clearance.
• Advising Pamplona Capital Management on the acquisition of Pelsis, a global manufacturer and distributor of pest control products.
• Advising Thoma Bravo on the strategic investment in Condeco, a global leader in workspace scheduling technology. 
• Advising BC Partners on the sale of European pharmaceutical company Pharmathen to Partners Group. 
• Advising BC Partners on the acquisition of a significant stake in Valtech, a global digital services and business transformation agency.
• Advising Warburg Pincus on the agreement with Macquarie Capital Principal Finance to jointly acquire a majority stake in Premier Technical Services Group. 
• Advising Thomas H. Lee Partners and AutoStore on the $2.8 billion sale of a 40% stake of AutoStore to SoftBank. 
• Advising InPost S.A. on the €565 million proposed acquisition of Mondial Relay, the leading French e-commerce out-of-home parcel delivery platform. 
• Advising Preservation Capital on the £100 million acquisition of Parmenion Capital, a provider of investment services and technology solutions for financial advice firms. 
• Advising Pinnacle Renewable Energy, the Toronto-listed entity, on its $652 million acquisition by Drax Group plc. 
• Advising an investor consortium comprised of Ocean Link Partners and Sequoia Capital China in the proposed take-private of Zhejiang New Century Hotel Management Co., Ltd.
• Advising Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. on its £1.08 billion sale of The Priory Group to Waterland Private Equity.
• Presidio, a portfolio company of BC Partners, on its acquisition of Arkphire, a leading IT product procurement and services company.
• Advising GLP on the acquisition of Goodman Group’s Central and Eastern Europe logistics real estate portfolio.
• Advising the bidding consortium led by Advent, Cinven and the RAG-Stiftung on the acquisition of the elevator division of thyssenkrupp AG, expected to be the largest-ever European buyout transaction to date.
• Advising Cerberus Capital on the sale of Staples Solutions’ activities in Southern Europe to Raja SA.
• Acting for CPS Performance Materials, a portfolio company of Arsenal Capital Partners, in relation to its acquisition of GEO Specialty Chemicals.
• Advising Thomas H. Lee Partners on its acquisition of AutoStore from EQT.
• Representing Croatian food and retail group Agrokor d.d. in the successful completion of its groundbreaking two-year restructuring process, the largest restructuring in Europe in 2017/18.
• Acting for KKR on its acquisition of Corel Corporation, one of the world's top software platforms, from Vector Capital.
• Representing Bain Capital Private Equity on its acquisition of a majority stake in Maesa, a global beauty brand incubator.
• Advising Boeing on its acquisition of aerospace parts distributor KLX, Inc. for $4.25 billion, coordinating several merger control processes including an EU Phase I investigation.
• Acting for Sycamore Partners on the sale of EMP Merchandising to Warner Music.
• Advising Rhône Capital on the acquisition of a 45% interest in Maxam from Advent International.
• Advising Material Handling Systems, Inc., a portfolio company of Thomas H. Lee Partners, on its acquisition of VanRiet Material Handling Systems from Avedon Capital Partners and management.
• Acting for Crestview Partners in connection with the acquisition by its subsidiary, Accuride Corporation, of mefro wheels; conditional EU Phase I clearance.
• Advising Tronox Limited on its acquisition of Cristal’s titanium dioxide business in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion; conditional EU Phase II clearance.
• Advising Vitruvian Partners on the acquisition of Technogroup IT-Service GmbH and a majority stake in EasyPark Group.
• Representing various clients in relation to restructuring processes, to consider the implications of those processes from a competition law perspective and to make appropriate merger control filings.
• Acting for a range of clients to provide advice on competition law compliance in general and in relation to discrete antitrust issues, including horizontal cooperation and vertical agreements.

Prior to joining Kirkland, Matthew worked on the following matters:

Merger Control

• Advising the London Stock Exchange Group in respect of its proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse; EU Phase II investigation.
• Representing BT for its £12.5bn takeover of EE; unconditional UK Phase II clearance.

Antitrust Advisory Work and Cartel Investigations

• Advising a large financial services client in relation to a multinational investigation into alleged breaches of Article 101 and equivalent national laws.
• Acting for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the European Commission's investigation into alleged anticompetitive conduct in the market for Credit Default Swaps.
• Advising a range of clients across various industries on issues relating to horizontal cooperation and vertical restraints.

Compliance

• Acting for a variety of clients on issues of competition law compliance, including development of compliance policies, procedures and training.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, London

• Associate, 2013–2017

• Trainee Solicitor, 2011–2013

BP PLC, London

• Trainee Solicitor, Secondee, 2013