Biography
Sophie Thomas is an Associate in White & Case's Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in Dubai and a member of the Firm's Private Equity team. She advises private equity sponsors, portfolio companies, sovereign investors and multinational corporates on complex cross-border M&A and private equity transactions across a range of jurisdictions. Her practice covers acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, competitive auction processes, management incentive and equity arrangements, corporate restructurings and a broad spectrum of strategic corporate advisory matters.
Sophie has experience advising on high-profile domestic and international transactions across a diverse range of sectors, including healthcare, technology and software, consumer, infrastructure, telecommunications and agribusiness. She regularly supports clients throughout the transaction lifecycle, from structuring and execution through to post-completion integration and ongoing corporate matters. Prior to joining White & Case, Sophie advised leading private equity sponsors, strategic investors and portfolio companies on a wide range of market-leading corporate transactions, bringing a commercially focused and pragmatic approach to complex deal execution.
Experience
Representative transactions include advising:
- Representation of Asda Group, owned by the Issa brothers and investment funds managed by TDR Capital and Walmart, on its acquisition of EG Group’s UK and Ireland operations for an enterprise value of GBP 2.27 billion.*
- Representation of Apax Partners funds on its sale of a controlling interest in Healthium Medtech, an India-based medical devices company, to KKR.*
- Representation of Bain Capital on various matters including an auction process, general corporate advisory and management equity programmes.*
- Representation of CDPQ on its acquisition of a 30% stake in ATC Europe, with an overall transaction value of EUR 1.6 billion.*
- Representation of Cinven and Novo Holdings on its disposal of Envirotainer to EQT and Mubadala for an enterprise value of approximately EUR 2.8 billion.*
- Representation of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice on various matters including general corporate advisory and management equity programmes.*
- Representation of Greykite on its joint venture with StepStone Group in Vitalia, Spain’s second largest care home owner-operator, with an overall transaction value of EUR 1.5 billion.*
- Representation of KKR on its acquisition of Superstruct Entertainment, a European festival operator, from Providence Equity Partners.*
- Representation of KKR on its acquisition of a majority stake in Accountor Software, a business software provider in Finland and Sweden, from Vitruvian Partners.*
- Representation of KKR on its proposed acquisition of a business in the consumer sector.*
- Representation of KKR on various matters including general corporate advisory and management equity programmes.*
- Representation of K1 Investment Management on a strategic growth investment in Board Intelligence, a leading board management software platform.*
- Representation of K1 Investment Management on its sale of a business in the technology and software sector.*
- Representation of Louis Dreyfus Company, a global agri-commodity business, on its sale of a 45% equity stake to ADQ.*
- Representation of Oakley Capital on various matters including general corporate advisory and management equity programmes.*
- Representation of Peak Rock Capital portfolio company on its proposed acquisition of a software business.*
- Representation of Telefónica on the GBP 31 billion merger of O2 and Virgin Media to create a 50/50 joint venture between Telefónica and Liberty Global.*
- Representation of various US sponsor-backed portfolio companies on various matters including general corporate advisory, reorganizations and management equity programmes.*
- Representation of Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone-backed portfolio company on the proposed sale of an education software and services business.*
*Experience prior to joining White & Case