Anthony's practice areas focus on mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and general commercial arrangements. He has a particular expertise and interest in the leisure industry and works extensively for clients in the hotel and advertising industries.
Anthony is recommended in the Legal 500 2011 for Hotels & Leisure and as a leading individual in Chambers UK 2012 for both Corporate/M&A: Mid Market and Real Estate: Hotels and Leisure.
Experience
Commercial contracts
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Extensive work for hotel operators in the UK and abroad to include detailed work on fractional entitlement, hotel operating agreements, disposals and acquisitions of assets and general hotel advice.
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Advising Isle de France Group Limited, owners of the luxury hotel, Hotel Saint-Barth, Isle de France, on a group reorganisation involving a partial sell out and additional new investment with a total value of €42m.
Mergers and acquisitions
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Acting for Akkeron Hotels Group Limited on the acquisition of ten hotels from the administrators of Butterfly Hotels Limited and Crowne Hotels Limited.
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Acting for Akkeron Hotels Limited on the acquisition of the Folio hotel business and eight hotels from Mulbourn Limited.
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Advising Akkeron Hotels Group Limited on the acquisition of 18 Forestdale hotels. The acquisition was funded with a mixture of equity, deferred consideration and a new £32m credit facility provided by Lloyds Banking Group.
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Advising Green Pilgrim Limited, part of James Brent’s Akkeron Group, on its acquisition of the Plymouth Argyle Football Club from the Administrators.
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Advising Coral Capital Group Plc, a Cuban based venture capital company, on a hotel related acquisition, a proposed Cuban fund and other joint ventures.
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Advising RREEF Real Estate, part of the global alternative investment management business of Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division, on its £100m+ acquisition of Four Pillars Hotel Group. This acquisition presented particular challenges due to the complicated nature of the tax structuring which factored a possible REIT exit into the initial acquisition structure.
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Advising the Bourn family on the £53.3m disposal of regional housebuilder Hugh Bourn Developments (Wragby) Ltd to Kier Group plc, the major construction, support services, homes and property group.
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Advising the shareholders of the Hotwire Group, a specialist PR company, on the sale of the group to Photon Group UK Ltd, a leading Australian based PR company.
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Advising the shareholders of Twenty Twenty Productions Ltd and its subsidiary company Twenty Twenty Brighton Ltd on the sale of the companies to AIM listed Shed Media plc, including consideration of IP in programme content and clearance issues. Twenty Twenty is an independent UK television production company that has won numerous awards for its productions, including a BAFTA in 2007 for “The Choir”, an Indie award in 2005 for “That’ll Teach ’Em” and an International Emmy in 2004 for “Brat Camp”.
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Advising on the £60m acquisition of Fantasy Island theme park, where funding was provided by Anglo Irish Bank. Fantasy Island is a multi-award winning family visitor attraction that has regularly been at the forefront of innovation and investment within the leisure and tourism industry.