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Martin Shah

Recent Work

  • acting for British Land on its £1.2bn corporate joint venture with J Sainsbury plc relating to 39 UK superstores, including structuring the joint venture to comply with REIT requirements and on related securitisation matters. This followed on from advice on the £1.015bn refinancing of its Meadowhall Shopping Centre securitisation, together with the establishment of the Meadowhall Limited Partnership, a Jersey vehicle with over £1.6bn of UK property assets at launch
  • acting for The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limitedon its participation in the successful £4.9bn contested offer by way of scheme of arrangement by a subsidiary of Pearl Assurance plc for Resolution plc
  • acting for Cordea Savills on the launch of Cordea Savills Italian Opportunities No.2, a Luxembourg fund established under the recently introduced specialised investment funds regime to make opportunistic investments in Italy and other EU jurisdictions, with target assets of €1.5bn
  • acting for a number of the leading European and US traditional and alternative asset managers on tax structuring matters for their funds and investment management businesses, in particular, in respect of structuring investments in illiquid asset classes.

General Experience

Martin’s broad based practice encompasses corporate, financial markets, real estate (including structured real estate) and commercial work, with an emphasis on clients in the financial institutions and TMT sectors. His focus includes advising on funds and other investment products, together with structural tax issues for banking, asset management and insurance clients.

Martin also has wide ranging experience in structuring outsourcing arrangements in the financial sector, advising both banks, insurers and asset managers on IT and business process outsourcing.

Martin was "highly rated in the market" in the latest edition of Legal 500.

Background

Martin qualified as a solicitor at Simmons & Simmons in 2000 and became a partner in 2008.

He is a regular participant at the Investment Management Association and Alternative Investment Management Association, and participates in the latter organisation’s Tax Committee. He also led the AIMA working group on the European Savings Directive.

Martin is a member of the HM Treasury Islamic Finance Technical Working Group, which meets on a regular basis to consider developments in UK tax law to facilitate the growth of alternative finance in the UK market.

Martin is a member of the VAT and Duties Sub-Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales, and regularly participates on behalf of the Law Society and clients in discussions with HM Revenue & Customs on VAT matters.