Michael Honan

Michael is a corporate partner who advises on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters around the world, with a focus on the Energy and Infrastructure sector and Consumer sector. His main areas of practice include public and private M&A, joint ventures and corporate restructurings.

Michael’s has significant experience in the Energy and Infrastructure sector with financial sponsors and strategic investors. This has included recently advising:

• CK Infrastructure on the sale of a significant interest in Northumbrian Water to KKR
• Ontario Teachers Pension on its acquisition of Evoltz, the Brazilian electricity transmission business
• BlackRock on its acquisition of a significant interest in the European EV charging network Ionity
• Equitix on the acquisition of Aurora Infrastructure, the electricity distribution network in Finland
• BlackRock on its acquisition of a significant interest in gas pipeline project Medgaz
• China Investment Corporation on its acquisition of a significant interest in a telecommunications group
• OMERS Infrastructure and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan on the acquisition and subsequent disposal of High Speed 1 high speed rail link
• OMERS Infrastructure and Allianz Capital Partners on the acquisition of NET4GAS, the Czech gas distribution network

Michael also has enormous renewables experience, including recently advising:

• Ontario Teachers Pension Plan on the establishment of Corio, its global offshore wind development platform with Macquarie
• Orsted on its sale of a 50% stake in Hornsea 2 offshore wind project to Axa and Credit Agricole
• Equitix on the acquisition of a significant interest in Viridor’s waste-to-energy business
• Mitsui on the sale of its interest in the First Hydro hydroelectric power plant in the UK to Brookfield
• Aquila Capital on the sale of a portfolio of European wind farms
• BlackRock Real Assets on the sale of a portfolio of European wind farms and solar projects
• Equitix Investment Management Limited and The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited on the acquisition of 40% of the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm
• A Japanese consortium on the acquisition of a significant interest in the Dudgeon offshore wind farm

Michael also has enormous experience advising clients across the Consumer sector, including consumer brand businesses, supermarkets, retailers, ecommerce, luxury goods and alcoholic beverages. Transactions include advising:

• Nestlé on the carve-out and $10bn disposal of its global Nestle Skin Health business, the carve-out of its global ice cream and frozen food business and creation of a new joint venture (Froneri) with PAI Partners/R&R Ice Creams, its acquisition of bespoke online pet food business tails.com, its acquisition of pet food business Lily’s Kitchen, its acquisition of D2C businesses Mindful Chef (UK), Simply Cook (UK), BodyMed (Germany) and Pronokal (Spain) and its acquisition of a significant interest in Independent Vetcare Group International
• Sainsbury’s plc on its aborted £13.2bn merger with ASDA, the acquisition of Sainsbury’s Bank from Lloyds Banking Group and the carve-out and sale of its in-store pharmacy business to Celesio
• John Lewis on the transfer of its customer card business from HSBC to New Day
• Westfalia International, the world’s largest avocado producer, on the sale of a significant interest to Harvard Management Company
• Caffe Nero on its ownership structure
• C&C Group on the establishment of new distribution channels
• Scottish & Newcastle plc on its takeover by Heineken and Carlsberg
• GUS on the demerger of Burberry

Michael has advised clients in other sectors on a wide range of corporate transactions, including public takeovers (UBM plc on its £3.9bn takeover by Informa plc, Ophir Energy on its takeover of Dominion Energy, Weinerberger on its takeover of Baggeridge Brick plc, Arcapita on its public takeover of Viridian, Square Enix on the takeover of Eidos plc, Regent Pacific on its takeover of Plethora Solutions), lender restructurings and pension funding partnership transactions.

In addition, Michael has led a number of internal investigations and governance reviews for clients around the world.

Outside of Linklaters, Michael is a trustee of Magic Breakfast, the national charity providing healthy breakfasts and support to school pupils at risk of hunger.

Michael was a trainee at Linklaters from 2003 to 2005, qualifying into the Corporate department where he practised for another ten years before being elected to Partner in 2015.

2001 - 2002 Nottingham Law School

1998 - 2001 University of Bristol