A partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group, Francesca has extensive experience across a wide range of corporate transactions for financial sponsors and strategic clients. She has advised on public and private M&A, capital markets transactions and cross-border deals for some of the industry’s leading financial sponsors, including Blackstone, EQT, Thoma Bravo, Brookfield and GIC, and for FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 public companies, including Signature Aviation, DS Smith, Arsenal Football Club, Cineworld, FirstGroup, RSA Insurance and Direct Line.
Francesca has been recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” by The Legal 500 UK in M&A: Upper Mid-Market And Premium Deals, £750m+ since 2024, and prior to that as a “Rising Star” since 2019.
Experience
Francesca’s representative experience has included advising:
- Blackstone on various matters, including:
- its $1.57 billion competitive, and ultimately recommended, all-cash take-private acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Fund;
- its $1 billion partnership with Hipgnosis Song Management—winner of Private Equity Deal of the Year at the IFLR Europe Awards;
- its acquisition of Justin Timberlake’s entire catalogue of more than 200 songs by Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital;
- its $440 million proposed acquisition of 29 music catalogues from Hipgnosis Songs Fund by Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital;
- its portfolio company iQSA on its £969 million recommended all-cash take-private acquisition of GCP Student Living plc in consortium with Scape Living;
- its acquisition of a majority stake in VFS Global.
- EQT on various matters, including:
- its £4.5 billion recommended all-cash take-private acquisition of Dechra Pharmaceuticals plc by an EQT-led consortium;
- its portfolio company Dechra Pharmaceuticals’ acquisition of Invetx;
- its proposed take-private offer for Alfa Financial Software Holdings.
- Thoma Bravo on various matters, including:
- its $5.32 billion recommended all-cash take-private acquisition of Darktrace plc;
- the acquisition by its portfolio company Darktrace of Cado Security;
- the acquisition by its portfolio company J.D. Power of Autovista Group;
- the recommended all-cash take-private acquisition by its portfolio company SailPoint of Osirium plc;
- the competitive, and ultimately recommended, all-cash take-private acquisition by its portfolio company Kofax of Tungsten Corporation plc;
- its investments in BlueMatrix and LOGEX;
- its $1.54 billion enterprise value sale of its portfolio company Venafi;
- the acquisitions by its portfolio company Anaplan of Fluence Technologies and the applications business of Vuealta Group.
- J.M. Huber Corporation on its $1.8 billion sale of CP Kelco to Tate & Lyle plc.
- Energy Capital Partners on its approximately $1 billion combination with Bridgepoint Group.
- Sani/Ikos Group on its €2.3 billion (as valued) recapitalization and strategic partnership agreement with GIC—winner of Private Equity Deal of the Year at the IFLR Europe Awards.
- Signature Aviation (formerly BBA Aviation) plc on various matters, including:
- its $4.7 billion competitive, and ultimately recommended, all-cash take-private acquisition by a consortium of Blackstone, Global Infrastructure Partners and Cascade;
- its $2.1 billion acquisition of Landmark Aviation from The Carlyle Group;
- its fully underwritten £748 million rights issue.
- DS Smith plc on various matters, including:
- its €1.7 billion all-cash take-private acquisition of Europac;
- its £1 billion fully underwritten rights issue;
- its $585 million disposal of its plastics division.
- FirstGroup plc on various matters, including:
- its $4.6 billion disposal of First Student and First Transit;
- its potential disposal of its U.K. bus division.
- RSA Insurance Group plc on various matters, including:
- its £5.6 billion proposed acquisition by Zurich Insurance Group;
- its £773 million fully underwritten rights issue.
- Direct Line Insurance Group plc on various matters, including:
- its disposal of its Italian and German operations for €550 million;
- its issue of RT1 notes and cash tender offer.
- Shire plc on its $55 billion proposed combination with AbbVie.
- Brookfield on various matters, including:
- its €1.1 billion recommended all-cash take-private acquisition of Hibernia REIT;
- its all-cash voluntary public takeover offer for Befimmo.
- Cineworld Group plc on its issue of approximately 154 million equity warrants in connection with its $450 million term loan facility and group refinancing.
- The independent board of Arsenal Football Club plc on its £1.8 billion all-cash recommended take-private acquisition by Stan Kroenke.
- Blue Capital Reinsurance Holdings on its $125 million initial public offering.
- The joint bookrunners on the proposed initial public offering of Bausch + Lomb.
- GIC on various mergers and acquisitions and capital markets matters, including the approximately $141 million initial public offering of Rönesans Gayrimenkul Yatırım.
- Gazit Hercules 2020 Limited (Newco) on its €1.45 billion recommended all-cash take-private acquisition of Atrium European Real.
- Apollo on its $6.9 billion acquisition of ADT Corporation.
- General Electric on its $16 billion acquisition of Alstom’s power and grid business.
- SK Capital on its approximately $2 billion sale of Perimeter Solutions to EverArc Holdings.
- OrthoLite, a portfolio company of Trilantic North America, on its $770 million sale to Coats Group plc.
- MRI Software, a portfolio company of TA Associates, GI Partners and Harvest Partners, on various matters, including:
- its acquisition of Capita One;
- its acquisition of eSight Energy Limited.
- Allianz on its £242 million acquisition of Legal & General’s General Insurance division.
- Reliance Brands on its acquisition of Hamleys Global Holdings.
- OakNorth Holdings on its $440 million equity raise led by SoftBank Vision Fund.
- BHP Billiton on its disposal of interests in the Bruce and Keith North Sea oil and gas fields to Serica Energy.
- INEOS on various matters, including:
- its acquisition of DONG Energy’s oil and gas business;
- its acquisition of the Forties Pipeline System from BP.
- The Ministry of Defence on its sale of the Government Pipeline and Storage System.
- The Department for Transport on the tender of the West Coast Partnership franchise.
- The Infrastructure and Projects Authority on the establishment of the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, involving HM Treasury investing up to £400 million as part of wider investments of over £1 billion of investment in full fibre broadband.
- Noble Group on its investment in X2 Resources to finance a diversified mining and metals group with £2.5 billion committed funding and up to a further $1.25 billion conditional funding.
- Non-Standard Finance plc on various capital markets matters.
- Bloomsbury Publishing plc on its placing.
- IWG plc on various matters relating to its strategic franchising partnerships.
