Gary Cooper

Expertise Experience Highlights Career History Sectors

Partner

Corporate

Expertise

Gary is a partner in our Corporate department with over 30 years of experience of advising on a wide range of corporate transactions across multiple sectors and territories. He specialises in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, joint ventures, shareholders agreements, venture capital and private equity transactions. Gary has spent time on secondment with clients operating in the investment banking, chemicals, industrials, real estate fund investment and media sectors.

Experience Highlights

Large M&A

  • Advised AstraZeneca plc on its US$1.15bn (£740m) acquisition of Pearl Therapeutics, a privately held US company developing inhaled combination therapies for the treatment of respiratory diseases.
  • Represented Black Dragon Capital in connection with its acquisition of Grass Valley, a leading technology supplier of advanced broadcast and media solutions, with operations in over 20 different jurisdictions worldwide.
  • Acted for the owners of APR Energy Cayman Limited (APR), one of the world’s largest providers of temporary power generation solutions, and its management shareholders in the sale of APR to Horizon Acquisition Company plc $850m (£523m).
  • Bracco – Advised Italian multinational Bracco on its acquisition of Blue Earth Technologies from Syncona for an initial consideration of £326 million. Blue Earth coomercialises and exploits lolecular imaging agents which help PET scans spot recurrent prostate cancer
  • General Electric – advised GE Power Systems on its acquisition of Pipeline Integrity International (PII Group Ltd) from HgCapital . PII is/was the world leader in pipeline in-line inspections and integrity management services for the oil and gas industry.
  • Barenboim – advised a Barenboim consortium on its (ultimately unsuccessful) acquisition of TradeTech – the financial trading division of Playtech plc.

Africa Experience

  • Mining Agreements – advised a major oil extraction company in relation to its rights under, the interpretation of and disputes relating to multiple iterations and variation of oil concession agreements and production agreements in a West African country.
  • Finance Bank Zambia – advised Atlas Mara plc on the acquisition of Finance Bank Zambia from its founder and various stakeholders.

Investment Agreements

  • Trianz Digital Solutions – Acted on multiple investment agreements, shareholder agreements and related agreements for Trianz opposite various providers of equity and debt finance.
  • Mount Sinai – acted on multiple investments by Mount Sinai in relation to emerging medical technologies opposite private equity and universities.

Leisure/Restaurants

  • Advising Hakkasan Limited on corporate matters and franchise operating agreements.
  • Advising Brooklyn Bowl in relation to the establishment of a leisure project joint venture in relation to “Brooklyn Bowl” at the o2.

Real Estate Corporate Work

  • Multiple corporate shell-based transactions for AIB and Allied Irish Bank and others.
  • Client secondment and Cromwell Property Group.

Financial Services/Insurance

  • 12+ acquisitions for Stubben Edge Group Limited over the last 2 years.
  • Joint venture between Stubben Edge and a well-known comparison provider.
  • Acquisition of Finance Bank Zambia for Atlas Mara plc.

Sports/Leisure

  • Advised the Mittal family on its investment into QPR.
  • Advised EMI on its £80m joint venture securitisation deal with Robbie Wiliams.
  • Advised a football agent on the scope and application of the Intermerdiaries rules

Joint Ventures

  • Advising Trianz on its various joint ventures with New York Life and others.
  • Advising EMI Music on a joint venture with Robbie Williams.
  • Advising Brooklyn Bowl on a joint venture in respect of a venture at the o2
  • Advising Vantage Travel on a joint venture in respect of a luxury tented safari camp in Zimbabwe

PE/VC

  • Crestview is a US private equity client and I have done multiple acquisitions for their portfolio company ATC Drivetrain.
  • Multiple transactions for Nili Capital Partners out of Israel.
  • Acquisition of Tyrrels Crisps for Langholm private equity

Reorganisations

  • Multiple group reorganisations – Stemcor, Gan Limited, Amazon, Cambridge Analytica

Commercial Work

  • Advising plc industrials client on a long-term supply agreement.
  • Advising plc industrials client on a group wide credit card agreement with American Express.
  • Advised FL Partners (as part of its acquisition of The Racing Post from Trinity Mirror) on a long terms printing agreement by which Trinity Mirror would continue to print the Racing Post.

 

 

Career History

Previous Law Firms

  • Mayer Brown LLP – Corporate Partner, Associate
  • Greenberg Traurig LLP – Corporate Partner
  • Smiths Group plc – Client Secondment
  • Bank of America – Client Secondment
  • Cromwell Property Group – Client Secondment
  • ICI Polyurethanes – Client Secondment
  • CNBC Europe – Client Secondment

Education

  • Manchester University – LLB Hons 2:1
  • College of Law, York 

 

Sectors

  • Private Equity and VC
  • Life sciences
  • Food and beverage
  • Start ups
  • Gaming
  • Insurance and financial services
  • Tourism
  • Software and IT
  • Engineering
  • Energy production
  • Manufacturing and Industrials
  • Retail
  • Chemicals
  • Life Sciences
  • Leisure
  • Sport
  • Banking
  • Music
  • Real Estate
  • Media – Print and Broadcasting

Expertise

Back to top

Gary is a partner in our Corporate department with over 30 years of experience of advising on a wide range of corporate transactions across multiple sectors and territories. He specialises in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, joint ventures, shareholders agreements, venture capital and private equity transactions. Gary has spent time on secondment with clients operating in the investment banking, chemicals, industrials, real estate fund investment and media sectors.

Experience Highlights

Back to top

Large M&A

  • Advised AstraZeneca plc on its US$1.15bn (£740m) acquisition of Pearl Therapeutics, a privately held US company developing inhaled combination therapies for the treatment of respiratory diseases.
  • Represented Black Dragon Capital in connection with its acquisition of Grass Valley, a leading technology supplier of advanced broadcast and media solutions, with operations in over 20 different jurisdictions worldwide.
  • Acted for the owners of APR Energy Cayman Limited (APR), one of the world’s largest providers of temporary power generation solutions, and its management shareholders in the sale of APR to Horizon Acquisition Company plc $850m (£523m).
  • Bracco – Advised Italian multinational Bracco on its acquisition of Blue Earth Technologies from Syncona for an initial consideration of £326 million. Blue Earth coomercialises and exploits lolecular imaging agents which help PET scans spot recurrent prostate cancer
  • General Electric – advised GE Power Systems on its acquisition of Pipeline Integrity International (PII Group Ltd) from HgCapital . PII is/was the world leader in pipeline in-line inspections and integrity management services for the oil and gas industry.
  • Barenboim – advised a Barenboim consortium on its (ultimately unsuccessful) acquisition of TradeTech – the financial trading division of Playtech plc.

Africa Experience

  • Mining Agreements – advised a major oil extraction company in relation to its rights under, the interpretation of and disputes relating to multiple iterations and variation of oil concession agreements and production agreements in a West African country.
  • Finance Bank Zambia – advised Atlas Mara plc on the acquisition of Finance Bank Zambia from its founder and various stakeholders.

Investment Agreements

  • Trianz Digital Solutions – Acted on multiple investment agreements, shareholder agreements and related agreements for Trianz opposite various providers of equity and debt finance.
  • Mount Sinai – acted on multiple investments by Mount Sinai in relation to emerging medical technologies opposite private equity and universities.

Leisure/Restaurants

  • Advising Hakkasan Limited on corporate matters and franchise operating agreements.
  • Advising Brooklyn Bowl in relation to the establishment of a leisure project joint venture in relation to “Brooklyn Bowl” at the o2.

Real Estate Corporate Work

  • Multiple corporate shell-based transactions for AIB and Allied Irish Bank and others.
  • Client secondment and Cromwell Property Group.

Financial Services/Insurance

  • 12+ acquisitions for Stubben Edge Group Limited over the last 2 years.
  • Joint venture between Stubben Edge and a well-known comparison provider.
  • Acquisition of Finance Bank Zambia for Atlas Mara plc.

Sports/Leisure

  • Advised the Mittal family on its investment into QPR.
  • Advised EMI on its £80m joint venture securitisation deal with Robbie Wiliams.
  • Advised a football agent on the scope and application of the Intermerdiaries rules

Joint Ventures

  • Advising Trianz on its various joint ventures with New York Life and others.
  • Advising EMI Music on a joint venture with Robbie Williams.
  • Advising Brooklyn Bowl on a joint venture in respect of a venture at the o2
  • Advising Vantage Travel on a joint venture in respect of a luxury tented safari camp in Zimbabwe

PE/VC

  • Crestview is a US private equity client and I have done multiple acquisitions for their portfolio company ATC Drivetrain.
  • Multiple transactions for Nili Capital Partners out of Israel.
  • Acquisition of Tyrrels Crisps for Langholm private equity

Reorganisations

  • Multiple group reorganisations – Stemcor, Gan Limited, Amazon, Cambridge Analytica

Commercial Work

  • Advising plc industrials client on a long-term supply agreement.
  • Advising plc industrials client on a group wide credit card agreement with American Express.
  • Advised FL Partners (as part of its acquisition of The Racing Post from Trinity Mirror) on a long terms printing agreement by which Trinity Mirror would continue to print the Racing Post.

 

 

Career History

Back to top

Previous Law Firms

  • Mayer Brown LLP – Corporate Partner, Associate
  • Greenberg Traurig LLP – Corporate Partner
  • Smiths Group plc – Client Secondment
  • Bank of America – Client Secondment
  • Cromwell Property Group – Client Secondment
  • ICI Polyurethanes – Client Secondment
  • CNBC Europe – Client Secondment

Education

  • Manchester University – LLB Hons 2:1
  • College of Law, York 

 

Sectors

Back to top
  • Private Equity and VC
  • Life sciences
  • Food and beverage
  • Start ups
  • Gaming
  • Insurance and financial services
  • Tourism
  • Software and IT
  • Engineering
  • Energy production
  • Manufacturing and Industrials
  • Retail
  • Chemicals
  • Life Sciences
  • Leisure
  • Sport
  • Banking
  • Music
  • Real Estate
  • Media – Print and Broadcasting