Ben Spiers

Ben Spiers is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s London office and a member of the Firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice. Ben’s practice focuses on public and private M&A, securities and corporate restructurings. He has spent many years advising clients on complex cross-border transactions around the globe.

Select transactions on which Ben has advised include:

• Veld Capital in its spin-out from AnaCap Financial Partners
• Oakley Capital in its announced acquisitions of Construction Testing Solutions and the Phenna Group
• Barings Private Equity Asia in its acquisition by EQT AB for €6.8 billion
• Bridgepoint in its £907 million initial public offering
• Thomson Reuters and Refinitiv in their placing of approximately US$1 billion of shares in London Stock Exchange Group plc
• Refinitiv in its sale to London Stock Exchange Group in an all share transaction for a total enterprise value of approximately US$27 billion
• Melrose Industries in the sale of its Nortek Air Management business to Madison Industries for approximately £2.62 billion
• Blackstone in its acquisition of Bourne Leisure and in its acquisition of Desotec
• True Wind Capital in its equity investment, alongside FTV Capital, in Sysnet Global Solutions 
• BC Partners in its sale of a passive, minority investment to Blackstone Alternative Asset Management
• Blackstone in its takeover of Hansteen Holdings plc for £500 million
• GardaWorld and BC Partners in the hostile takeover offer for G4S plc
• Bridgepoint in its sale of a strategic minority investment to Dyal Partners
• Melrose Industries in its successful £8.1 billion hostile offer for GKN plc
• Blackstone in its acquisition of Cirsa Gaming Corporation, S.A. for €2.2 billion 
• Silver Lake in its takeover of ZPG plc (with co-investment from GIC and PSP) for £2.2 billion 

Ben’s experience prior to Simpson Thacher includes representing Honeywell International in its acquisition of the Elster division of Melrose Industries for £3.3 billion, where he first came across Simpson Thacher across the table.  

Ben has been recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers UK and IFLR1000. He received his B.A. (Hons) degree from the University of Oxford in Pure and Applied Biology and completed a law conversion qualification and law school at the College of Law in Chester. He is admitted to the Law Society of England and Wales.