John Poll

He/himPartner

John is highly commercial in his approach, assessing all risks and pragmatically solving issues. He skillfully articulates complex legal concepts/issues, is very personable, an expert in his field and respected by all.

— CEO, Outcomes First Group

Emailjohn.van.de.poll@akd.partners

Call+44 (0)121 262 5934

Sydney

About

John is a corporate partner who is highly regarded for his extensive transactional mergers and acquisitions and private equity experience, acting for clients across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the US.

He regularly acts for founder shareholders, large corporate vendors/purchasers, private equity and debt funders/institutions and management teams on a wide range of domestic and cross-border corporate transactions. John’s main areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions, disposals, management buyouts, secondary buyouts, development capital investments, exits and corporate reorganisations, restructurings and refinancings.

He practices across multiple sectors including Financial Services, Energy and Natural Resources, Consumer Goods, Food and Retail, Technology, Real Estate, Media Sport and Entertainment, Life Sciences, Infrastructure, Construction and Transport but has particular expertise in the Industrials Sector.

John is Global Co-Chair of AKD Partners’s Manufacturing Sub-sector and the UK Head of Industrials. He brings a mixture of technical excellence and commerciality to any transaction he leads.

John advises global corporates including Alstom; Altrad; Blom; BorgWarner; Bridgestone; Bromford Industries; CommVault Systems; CoreLogic; H&M Hennez & Mauritz; Hill & Smith; Huber+Suhner; Jaguar Land Rover, KTM; Lotus Bakeries; MKS Instruments; Mondelez; Mitsubishi Logisnext; National Grid; Outcomes First Group; Staples; Swissport; Watkin Jones Group and William Hill and international institutions including Barclays Bank; LDC; Livingbridge; Lloyds Bank; NFT Ventures; Permira; Sovereign Capital Partners; The Co-Operative Bank; The Royal Bank of Scotland and Vespa Capital.

Areas of FocusIndustrials Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions Private Equity

Professional QualificationsSolicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales

EXPERIENCE

Acting for MKS Instruments on its US$6.5 billion multi-jurisdictional acquisition of Atotech.
Acting for the management shareholders of Veritas Petroleum Services on the GBP144,000,000 multi-jurisdictional secondary buy-out of that company backed by Fremman Capital.
Acting for Huber+Suhner on its acquisition of the business and assets of Roadmap Systems for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for the founder shareholders of Leeson Chemicals on the disposal of its entire issued share capital to ICP Building Solutions Group backed by Audax Private Equity for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for Altrad Investment Authority on its multi-jurisdictional acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Interserve Engineering and Construction (UAE) from Interserve Engineering for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for the founder shareholders of Carnell Support Services Group on the disposal of its entire issued share capital to Renew Holdings for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for the founder shareholders of Adam Equipment on the multi-jurisdictional auction disposal of its entire issued share capital to Indutrade for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for Sertec Corporation on the Business Growth Fund’s additional investment in its share capital.
Acting for the founder shareholders of the Newell Palmer Group on the auction disposal of its entire issued share capital to Ascot Lloyd for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for Lotus Bakeries on its multi-jurisdictional acquisition of the entire issued share capitals of Kids Food Company and Kids Food Global from their founder shareholders for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for the management shareholders of Bromford Holdings on the multi-jurisdictional auction disposal of its entire issued share capital to Bromford Acquisitions backed by Liberty Hall Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum.
Acting for Sovereign Capital Partners and the management shareholders of Outcomes First Group on the GBP250,000,000 plus auction disposal of its entire issued share capital to SSCP Spring Bidco backed by Sterling Square Capital Partners.
Acting for Tattershall Castle Group on the GBP100,000,000 plus auction disposal of its business and assets to Stonegate Pub Company backed by TDR Capital.
Acting for Allied Irish Bank, the Pension Protection Fund and others on the GBP80,000,000 plus multi-jurisdictional disposal of the entire issued share capital of Stadco Automotive to Magna.
Acting for Equiniti Group on its investment in MyCSP, the first “John Lewis style” mutual joint venture with the Cabinet Office in relation to the outsourcing of the administration of the civil service pension scheme.

Awards

In November 2021 John received Thomson Reuters “Stand-out Lawyer” independent rating
For the third consecutive year John has received "Acritas Star" independent lawyer rating
In January 2016 Legal Week named John as a "rising star" amongst M&A partners across the UK
The 2014 edition of Chambers & Partners describes John as "an incredibly personable guy who is as passionate about your transaction as you are" and "from a professional perspective he is absolutely spot-on in his knowledge of the market and the law"