Kyri Papantoniou

Expertise

Kyri is a specialist corporate finance and commercial lawyer with a particular focus on M&A, disposals, venture capital and private equity investments and corporate restructuring, with a notably strong interest in the UK’s tech sector.

He is noted for his work with entrepreneurs in scaling to exit. He supports fast-growth businesses with every key stage of business — from start-up and growth phase to exit. He advises on a broad range of commercial projects and leads clients on a broad range of equity investment fundraising rounds — venture capital, growth capital, Series A and beyond. He offers value enhancing strategies tailored to the client’s needs to help entrepreneurs maximise business value at the time of sale.

Kyri also advises international companies, across a diverse range of sectors, in investing in the UK through acquisitions. With his extensive network, he is well-positioned to bring in the right talent to facilitate doing business in the UK.

Kyri is a regular speaker at events and conferences on and has been quoted in a number of publications and news articles.

Kyri Advises

• Entrepreneurs and founders
• Start-ups, scale ups and high-growth companies
• Investors, funds and family offices
• Companies looking for investment
• International companies investing in the UK
• Management Teams

Experience Highlights

• Advising on the sale of a coach operator to a UK quoted multinational public transport company. Reported in national press to be the ‘biggest sale involving a family-owned coach business’
• Advising on the sale of a software development company to a private equity backed Health & Safety, Employment Law and HR Service Provider
• Advising on the sale of an award-winning furniture and consultancy supplier to a Canadian private equity firm
• Advising a professional association football club on its equity fund raise
• Advising a private equity company on a series of acquisitions and investments
• Advising a national property management company on multiple acquisitions
• Advising the management team on a purchase out of administration of an engineering consultancy and equipment manufacturer for the construction of long-span bridges and power stations
• Advising an exclusive and globally renowned couture design business on its investment strategy and equity fund raise
• Advising an electronics company on a reorganisation, involving a Section 110 liquidation
• Advising a boutique investment firm specialising in real estate and private equity on its investment fund partnership with a global institutional investment management firm
• Advising a FinTech business involved in global trade finance on a pre-Series A fund raise and share buyback
• Advising on a reverse takeover and placing of a copper mining company
• Advising multiple tech entrepreneurs in relation to private equity and VC fund raising rounds
• Advising ultra-high net worth clients with succession plans, wealth preservation and investment structures
• Advising a well-known luxury, high-end audio-visual company on a buyback of its shares
• Advising a private equity house in relation to an equity investment of a US hedge fund
• Advising a management team involved in commercial electronic entertainment on its acquisition growth plan
• Advised on a brand/business development programme for a former World No 1 tennis player

Career History

Previous Law Firms

• Pinsent Masons
• Stuart Hodge Corporate Lawyers
• Healys LLP
• Seddons
• Judge Sykes Frixou
• Fletcher Day

Memberships

• Tech London Advocate

Education

• Royal Grammar School, Worcester
• College of Law (LPC)
• University of Wales, Cardiff (LLB)

Other

• City AM, ‘Karen Brady and a lesson on the duties of directors’
• Computing Magazine, ‘Top Tips for Tech Start Ups’
• UKTN (the home of UK Tech), ‘Directors need to be more aware of their duties’
• Estates Gazette, ‘Managing Potential Conflicts of Interest’
• The Caterer, ‘How to make your business attractive to investors’
• The Independent, ‘Victory for Nigerian oil tycoon Michael Prest’s wife as “cheats charter” overturned in landmark Supreme Court divorce case’