William Howard

William Howard

Head of International

Will is a partner in the Corporate M&A and ECM Group and head of the firm's International Board. Will trained at Travers Smith and became a partner in 2012.

Will has broad corporate experience and his practice is based on UK and international M&A work. He specialises in cross-border M&A, private equity, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, general advisory and early-stage and development capital work. 

His clients include institutional investors, UK and overseas quoted and private companies and management teams. Will speaks fluent French.

Selected Deals

  • Gatekeeper on strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners.
  • Saint-Gobain on the UK aspects of the acquisition of Glass Service a.s.
  • Stellantis N.V. on the UK aspects of its group reorganisation.
  • AJ Capital Partners on the acquisitions of several hotels in the UK including the Randolph (Oxford), Rusacks (St Andrews) and Slieve Donard (Royal County Down).
  • Questel SAS on its majority investment in Equinox, a leading IP management provider.
  • JF Hillebrand, a global transport and logistics provider, on its acquisition of Braid, a leader in bulk liquids logistics.
  • Paprec on the UK aspects of its acquisition of the Dalkia Wastenergy Group.
  • GrowUp Farms, a vertical farming operator, on debt and equity financing arrangements with Generate Capital.
  • Wise Equity on the UK aspects of its majority investment in Onetag, a programmatic advertising company.
  • SNCF on the acquisition of international ticket booking platform Loco2 prior to its rebrand as Rail Europe.
  • Dassault Systemes on the acquisition of the Opera business from Cobham plc.
  • BNP Paribas on the UK aspects of its joint venture acquisition of 3Step IT.
  • LVMH and Groupe Arnault in connection with the formation of L Catterton.
  • The Agrial Group on several acquisitions within the food and beverage sector, including Axgro, MyFresh and Aston Manor, the UK's largest independent cider producer.
  • Looping Group on its acquisition of the West Midland Safari Park and the Drayton Manor Resort.
  • Staci SAS, an investee company of Ardian, on its acquisition of Michael Davies & Associates Limited from Bunzl plc.
  • Orange on the acquisition of Sun Communications, the leading Moldovan Pay TV provider.
  • Sportlight, a sports technology start-up, on various equity fundraisings.
  • Gerflor, an investee company of Cobepa, on acquisitions in the UK, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.
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