Rich Jones

Rich has in-depth experience of advising clients on their most critical commercial arrangements, both on a standalone basis, and in the context of M&A and private equity transactions, business separations, restructurings, carve-outs, financings and outsourcings.

Rich has particular expertise in relation to telecoms and digital infrastructure transactions, leading on the commercial arrangements among network operators, infrastructure JVs, towercos, data centres, fibre operators and other operators of digital infrastructure, and covering the full spectrum of infrastructure development, roll-out, operation and carve-outs, as well as site sharing, colocation and portfolio management arrangements. As part of this, Rich has spent time on secondment to Three UK, a mobile network operator, during which he worked on the extension of its network sharing arrangements with its network sharing partner, and its preparations for the roll-out of 5G. 

Rich also has extensive experience advising clients in the technology, healthcare, and financial services sectors, which involves navigating stringent regulations, and often requires close work with technical experts and consultants. In addition, Rich advises clients on data protection compliance matters, and spent time working in Linklaters’ Brussels office in 2018, where he helped clients across the world with their GDPR readiness.

Work highlights

Rich has advised on many major projects and transactions. These include advising:

• CK Hutchison on the €10bn sale of its large portfolio of telecommunications towers assets in Europe to Cellnex
• Arqiva on the sale of its telecoms division (towers business) to Cellnex Telecom for £2bn
• Audi on its entry into Formula 1, including negotiating the terms of its supply of power units to the works team, and the terms for supply of fuel and lubricants from third party suppliers
• Takeda on its long-term manufacturing and supply arrangements with Corza Health, Inc
• Zain Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) on the negotiation of a master tower services agreement for its portfolio of approximately 8,000 towers in Saudi Arabia
• One of the “Big 4” firms on its restructuring and development of its central technology function, including advising on technology procurement, IP ownership, software development and licensing, data localisation and more
• E.ON, on its development and procurement of a next-generation billing and customer services SaaS platform from Kraken Technologies (owned by challenger energy business, Octopus energy), which provides a full replacement of E.ON’s legacy systems for its millions of residential and SME customers

Previously, Rich was a non-executive director at HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the United Kingdom.

Rich studied law (LLB) at University College London.