Kate Cooper is an M&A and corporate partner based in London. Kate acts for international corporate and FTSE clients as well as some of the world’s largest financial sponsors. Her areas of practice include complex public and private M&A, UK public takeovers defence and activism as well as corporate restructurings, corporate governance and general UK listed company advice. Kate's varied experience spans a range of sectors, including TMT, Industrials, Consumer and Healthcare.
Kate joined Freshfields in 2006 as a trainee, and has been seconded previously to our Tokyo office, to the Organising Committee of the London Olympics and, as a senior associate, to Goldman Sachs’ European Investment Banking Legal team.
Before becoming a lawyer, Kate obtained a first class honours degree in English Literature and French from the University of Oxford.
- Keysight Technologies on its proposed takeover of Spirent Communications plc, a competitive public to private process
- Permira on its takeover of pharmaceutical company Ergomed plc (a cash and partial securities offering), a public-to-private acquisition
- CapitalG and Google Ventures on their investment in Monzo, the UK based challenger bank (Series I fundraising round)
- Universal Music Group on its acquisition of Mavin Global Holdings Limited, the Nigeria-based music label
- Comcast Corporation on its takeover of Sky plc for £30bn, following a competitive public auction with 21st Century Fox
- DWS Infrastructure fund on its takeover of Stagecoach plc, following a competitive public to private process
- Macquarie’s Infrastructure fund on the takeover of the UK communications and IT provider, KCOM Group plc, following a competitive public to private auction
- DNO ASA on its hostile takeover of energy company Faroe Petroleum plc
- Laird plc the British-based electronics and technology business, on its takeover by Advent International, a public to private acquisition
- AstraZeneca plc on its $39bn acquisition of NASDAQ-listed Alexion, Inc., the largest US acquisition of 2020
- Smiths Group plc on the disposal of its medical division to NASDAQ-listed ICU Medical for $2.8bn
- Convatec Group on the acquisition of an innovative antimicrobial nitric oxide platform from 30 Technology, a VC backed biopharmaceutical company
- AstraZeneca plc on its £3.5bn equity placing via an accelerated book build process, the largest undocumented equity raise in Europe ever
- CVC Capital Partners on the acquisition of QA Group, the digital education provider, from funds managed by Bregal Capital and various of its founders
- Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a NASDAQ-100 company, on various Tech acquisitions
- PepsiCo on the acquisition of South-African listed Pioneer Foods for $1.7bn
- BT on its £12.5bn purchase of EE mobile from Deutsche Telekom and Orange and its corporate restructuring of Openreach, its broadband infrastructure division
- MTN Group on various disposals of non-core assets across the Middle East and Africa
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