About Charles Hayes

Charles is global co-head of our private capital group. He specialises in high-profile and complex acquisitions, carve-outs, take-privates and exits for some of the world’s largest financial sponsors.

Charles is sought after by clients who value his technical and commercial excellence on a full range of financial sponsor deal types. He works across sectors, specialising in financial services, media and healthcare. He has also advised on a number of high-profile sports investments.

His client base covers global private equity houses, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and corporates. Having spent time on secondment with Goldman Sachs and in Freshfields’ MENA offices, Charles has a thorough understanding of the needs of our global financial sponsor clients.

Charles speaks English, French and German.

Recent work

• CVC Capital Partners on the sale of Etraveli Group to Booking Holdings Inc for €1.63 billion;
• CVC Capital Partners VIII on the acquisition of ekaterra B.V., the holding company of Unilever’s global tea business for €4.5 billion;
• CVC Capital Partners VIII on the acquisition of a majority interest in Medivet, a leading veterinary care provider in the UK, Germany and Spain;
• CVC Capital Partners on its acquisition of Glendower Capital, a private equity firm focussing on secondary transactions which spun out of Deutsche Bank’s asset management business in 2017;
• RAC, CVC Capital Partners and GIC on the sale of a stake in RAC to Silver Lake Partners; Silver Lake will become a co-shareholder alongside the RAC’s existing shareholders, including GIC and funds managed or advised by CVC Capital Partners;
• CVC Capital Partners VIII on its investment in Rayner, on its majority investment in Rayner, the global ophthalmology business, from Phoenix Equity Partners;
• Advising CVC Capital Partners on its participation with Fédération de Internationale Volleyball (“FIVB”) and partnership in Volleyball World;
• Advising GIC on an investment made by their venture capital team into Checkout.com;
• Advising CVC Capital Partners on its partnerships with Premiership Rugby and Pro14 Rugby;
• Advising CVC Capital Partners on the proposed take-private of Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Ahlsell AB by CVC Fund VII in an offer that values Ahlsell at USD 2.65 billion;
• Advising CVC Capital Partners and Messer Industries on the acquisition of the US divestment assets of Linde and Praxair following the announcement of those parties’ intention to merge;
• Advising aPriori Capital Partners and Neuberger Berman Group on the sale of Guala Closures, a leader in specialty closures for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries, for €1.1bn to Space4, a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Space Holding and listed on the Borsa Italiana;
• Advising CVC Capital Partners on the acquisition of TMF Group, a leading provider of specialist business services to clients operating and investing globally, from DH Private Equity Partners, for €1.75bn.