Bio

Mel Sims is a corporate lawyer who works on a wide range of corporate/commercial transactions including private equity, business restructurings, mergers & acquisitions, often with an international multi-jurisdictional application and has a particular expertise in the financial services sector, notably insurance and financial intermediaries. Mel joined DWF in 2017 with a wealth of non-contentious corporate insurance transactional experience built up over a 26 year period at DLA Piper during which time he was Global Co-Chairman of the DLA Insurance practice generally and latterly headed up their office in Qatar. Still involved in a number of major broking businesses as an NED (Global Risk Partners (UK) and PSC Insurance Group (Australia, UK and the USA)), Mel has completed a very significant number of substantial M&A transactions, particularly in the financial intermediary market. He was the principal lawyer to the Towergate Group of Companies until the sale of a controlling interest to private equity house, Advent International, Sabre Insurance, BDML, Cullum Capital Ventures, Folgate Insurance Company, Broker Network, Insurance Australia Group ("IAG"), Cox Insurance, Hastings Direct, Gan Insurance, Groupama, GMAC Insurance Holdings, Open GI and Hayward Aviation. Notable deals in which Mel has been a lead lawyer are the take private of Cox Insurance PLC and its subsequent sale to IAG; sales by IAG of its broking retail business to Swinton Insurance and Hastings Direct to Management, subsequently acting on behalf of the shareholders in Hastings Direct on a sale of a stake in the Company to Goldman Sachs and ultimately on the listing of Hastings Direct on the London Stock Exchange; the purchase of Folgate Insurance and its merger by way of scheme of arrangement with the Towergate Group; the sale by Zurich Insurance of its Eagle Star legacy asbestos pollution and health hazard business to Riverstone (Fairfax); the sale and reinsurance of the UK, Bermudian, German, Swedish and Russian insurance business of GMAC Insurance Holdings to Maiden Holdings and the £200 million investment by Advent International in the Towergate Group of Companies and contemporaneous refinancing of the Group including a £550 million bond issue.