Ken Barry

Partner, London

Biography

Ken is an outstanding commercial lawyer with a cool, calm approach (Chambers Global)

Ken is regarded as “outstanding in terms of level of advice and service” and hailed by clients as “all-round excellent, highly commercial and incredibly responsive”. Clients remark on his “fine negotiation skills and ability to mobilize resources to steer complex transactions across the line on tight timelines.” (Legal 500)

Overview

Ken Barry is a partner in our global M&A and Corporate practice based in London. Ken was previously Head of our Private Equity team in London.

He has extensive experience advising private equity houses and financial sponsor clients on a range of complex cross-border acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and public offerings.

Bars and Courts
England and Wales
Education
Master of Laws (LLM)
London School of Economics and Political Science
Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
University College Dublin
Languages
English

Experience

Ken's experience includes advising:

Triton:

  • on the ongoing acquisition of a significant US asset.
  • as Sponsor, its portfolio company, ACRE Operating Group, LLC, and Spitfire Parent, Inc., as Borrower, in a term loan facility in connection with the acquisition of Feenics, Inc., an access control as a service (ACaaS) platform.

Goldman Sachs:

  • on its acquisiton of Norgine, a leading European specialist pharmaceutical company.
  • on its acquisition of Visolit, a corporate IT solutions and cloud services business active in Norway and Sweden.
  • on its acquisition of Content+Cloud, a Microsoft-focused cloud services and digital transformation partner based in the UK.
  • on forming a consortium alongside Advent, Centerbridge, CPPIB, and LGT Group, to launch a take-private offer for Aareal Bank AG, an international specialist property financing bank listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for consideration of €29 per share, and an implied equity value of €1.8 billion.
  • as lead investor in a Series D fundraising into French robotics company, Exotec. Exotec is the designer and manufacturer of the Goods to Person SKYPOD solution, which enables order preparation in retail logistics.
  • on its investment in Elinvar, a leading digital platform for asset and wealth managers, in connection with its €25 million Series C fund raising.
  • on its investment in the weFox Group, a Berlin insurtech platform firm specialising in digital insurance in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
  • on the acquisition of a majority of the shares in Advania, a leading Nordic IT provider, alongside management, VIA Equity and other reinvesting shareholders for an EV of SEK 4.8 billion, approximately Euro 480 million.
  • and other majority shareholder, on the disposal of M-Tec Holding Denmark ApS, a holding company for Trackunit Group to HgCapital. Trackunit Group is a Danish telematics manufacturer with operations in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK and US.
  • on its investment into and disposal of Moonbug Entertainment, a children's entertainment company that distributes audio and video content on various platforms including YouTube, Amazon Prime and Netflix.

The Carlyle Group:

  • on its acquisition of LiveU, an Israeli-headquartered producer of portable cellular backpacks for video streaming and live broadcasting from Francisco Partners, the manager shareholder and minority shareholders.
  • on the proposed structured equity investment into Sazka.
  • on its equity and debt investment in the Unifrutti Group, a leading global distributor of fresh produce and fruit, through a preference equity injection and the tap of an existing bond.
  • on its acquisition of a majority stake in Memsource a.s., a leading Czech translation technology provider that assists global corporations and the language services industry in the automation of localisation relating to large volumes of multilingual content.
  • on its acquisition of disguise, a global provider of live event visualisation solutions, from Livingbridge and its founders.

CVC Capital Partners:

  • on its aborted bid for a Nordic utilities conglomerate.
  • on its ongoing acquisition of a CEE-based consumer goods business.

Mid Europa, a leading buyout investor focused on the growth markets of Central and South Eastern Europe:

  • in the agreed US $3.253 billion acquisition of the Allegro Group, the largest online marketplace and non-food shopping destination in Poland, from Naspers Limited (JSE: NPN.SJ and LSE: NPSN) by funds advised by Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa.
  • on the sale of Zabka Polska S.A., Poland's leading convenience retailer to funds advised by CVC Capital Partners. This is the largest ever transaction in the Polish food retail sector and the largest ever private equity exit in Poland.
  • on its acquisition of Sage sp. z o.o., who provide accounting software services to small and medium enterprises in Poland, from the Sage Group Plc.
  • in connection with their sale of Walmark a.s., a leading consumer healthcare company in CEE with a unique portfolio of iconic brands and direct presence across nine EU countries, to STADA Arzneimittel AG.
  • on the sale of Bambi, the leading biscuit producer in the countries of former Yugoslavia, to Coca-Cola HBC AG (Coca-Cola HBC).
  • on its acquisition of intive S.A., a digital product and software development services business based in Poland, Germany and Argentina from Enterprise Investors.
  • on its acquisition of JS Hamilton.
  • in the merger of Customer Management Center (CMC), the largest independent outsourced call centre and customer management services provider in Türkiye, with the M+ Group, the largest independent business process outsourcing (BPO) company in the CEE region.

BC Partners LLP on the acquisition of an up to approximately 45% stake in SOFIMA, the holding company that controls IMA S.p.A., an Italian publicly-traded company and world leader in the design and production of automatic machines for the processing and packaging of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food, tea, coffee and tobacco.

PPF Group, a global private equity investor:

  • in the €2.8 billion acquisition of Telenor's telecommunications assets in Central & Eastern Europe.
  • in the acquisition of Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ/Prague Stock Exchange: CETV) and its subsidiaries ("CME"). CME operates television stations in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

AS Graanul Invest, a world leader in biomass and bioenergy production, and the largest producer of wood pellets in Europe, on the sale of a majority stake to funds managed by the affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc.

Keter Group, the world's largest producer of quality resin consumer products on the acquisition by BC Partners Ltd and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board of a majority stake in the group from the Sagol family. The transaction is the biggest ever LBO in Israel and has been described as the "deal of the decade" in the Israeli press.

Petroleum Equity on the acquisition of RDG (a leading independent German oil and gas exploration company) from Rohöl-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft.

Development Partners International, a leading African focused private equity firm, on a US$45 million investment in MNT Investments B.V. to attain a significant minority stake.

HTN Towers group, (a portfolio company of Helios Investment Partners) on its sale to IHS Towers. This was the first mobile infrastructure consolidation in Africa.

Blackstone in its $900 million acquisition of the Mivisa Group.*

Blackstone in the sale of a 30% stake in Merlin Entertainments Group to CVC Capital Partners.*

KKR on its $342 million acquisition of Versatel, a German telecommunications company.*

* Matters prior experience to joining White & Case

Publications

Private Equity in Africa: Emerging Trends, INTO AFRICA, April 2017, (co-author with Ndidi Eseonu)

US and UK Share Purchase Agreements: Comparing Approaches, Practical Law, 2015, (co-author)

Not Out of the Net: M&A Pitfalls under the AIFMD for Non-EU Acquisitions Made by Non-EU Funds, Private Equity Report, 2013, (co-author)

Dealmaking in the UK Has Gotten Tougher: Impact of Takeover Code Reform, Private Equity Report, 2012, (co-author)

Awards and Recognition

Spotlight lawyer in the Corporate/M&A & Private Equity in Chambers Global Africa-Wide 2024