Matthew Birchall

Matt Birchall is an associate in Goodwin’s Tax practice, specializing in tax matters relating to private investment funds - in particular, fund structuring and formation, private equity M&A, secondaries, and associated financings (both fund finance and acquisition finance). He advises across a range of asset classes, with a particular focus on private equity, private credit and real estate (including extensive experience advising on UK REITs under private funds).

Matthew’s representative experience includes advising:

• ICG on a number of its European fundraisings, including its €8.1 billion eighth European Corporate fund
• Clarion Partners Europe Limited, the real estate investment fund manager specialising in logistics and industrial assets, on the closing of its core-plus, closed-end UK logistics fund
• Arma Partners, a UK corporate advisory firm specialising in digital finance, on its acquisition by Mediobanca, an Italian bank
• Accel-KKR
  • and its portfolio company, PayProp, on its merger with Reapit to create a leading property technology solution provider delivering greater value and innovation to estate and letting agents worldwide
  • on its investment in PayProp, a leading processor of rental payments for the property management industry
• TowerBrook on its impact investment in TXO, a provider of telecom network hardware and asset management services
• Creat-backed Tiancheng International
  • on its proposed €1.1 billion sale to Grifols of its indirect majority stake in Biotest, a specialist in innovative hematology and clinical immunology solutions
  • on the disposal of its majority stake in Bio Products Laboratory, a specialist in the development of rare disease products using fractionated blood plasma, to Permira
• Graphite Capital on its £428 million sale of U-POL, an automotive repair and refinishing products provider, to Axalta Coating Systems
• GTT Communications, Inc. on its sale of its infrastructure business to I Squared Capital for US$2.15 billion. I Squared Capital is an independent global infrastructure investment management firm focusing on energy, utilities, digital infrastructure, transport and social infrastructure
• Wavecrest Growth Partners, along with co-investor Abry Partners, on its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Pole Star Space Applications, a SaaS provider of regulatory and compliance maritime technology servicing a range of financial institutions, governments and shipping companies
• Shareholders of Receipt Bank / Dext on its majority sale to Hg Capital
• Levine Leichtman Capital Partners on its investment in Prime Global Medical Communications Ltd. in partnership with its founder and management team
• Kymab on its agreement under which Sanofi will acquire Kymab for an upfront payment of approximately $1.1 billion and up to $350 million upon achievement of certain milestones
• Queens Park Equity on the leveraged acquisition of Sagacity Group, a London-based IT consultancy company
• Several major W&I insurers in the London market on tax coverage aspects of 50+ W&I policies*

*Includes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Co-Author, “Horizon Scan for Private Investment Funds: Tax Developments to look out for (May 2024),” Goodwin Alert, May 2024