Aaron Fairhurst

Work Highlights

A consortium, led by Cheung Kong Infrastructure and Power Assets Holdings, on the acquisition of Wales & West Utilities, the UK gas distribution network, from a number of infrastructure and pension funds, with an enterprise value of GBP 2bn.

RWE on the sale of Horizon, its new nuclear power plant joint venture with E.ON, to Hitachi for GBP 696m.

Viridian on the sale of majority stakes in its onshore wind farm portfolios in Northern Ireland and the ROI to the Irish Infrastructure Fund, managed by AMP, including in relation to the resulting joint ventures.

BP on the disposal of oil and gas assets in Egypt and US to Apache as part of a package worth USD 7bn.

RWE on the disposal of various interests in fields in the North Sea.

The lenders on various pub-group restructurings, including the Barracuda and Laurel pub groups, with aggregate debt exceeding GBP 2bn.

Abbey Life on a GBP 2bn longevity insurance transaction with the Trustee of the Scottish Power Pension Scheme and on associated reinsurance arrangements with a number of reinsurers based around the globe.

The administrative receivers of the owners of the UK Marriott hotel portfolio with aggregate debt exceeding GBP 1bn.

The vendors on the sale of Integrated Dental Holdings to the Carlyle Group for GBP 500m.

The institutional sellers and management team of the National Fostering Agency on secondary buyout by Graphite.

The individual shareholders of EAT, The Real Food Company on their personal tax issues and the subsequent sale to Lyceum Capital.

All of the vendors, including management, on the disposal of Nature Delivered Limited (trading as Graze.com) as part of an MBO backed by the Carlisle Group.

Practice Areas

Aaron Fairhurst is the Co-Head of the Tax Team and has worked at CMS since 2002.

Aaron has worked in a wide range of transactional and advisory roles, both domestic and international, covering income tax and capital gains tax, corporation tax, VAT and stamp taxes.

He primarily advises corporate and individual clients on the tax implications of disposals and acquisitions, joint ventures and reorganisations in the energy and infrastructure sectors, the corporate recovery sector and the private equity markets. Aaron is also well known and highly regarded in the W&I insurance market.

Languages Spoken

English

Education