Dan Schuster-Woldan

Dan is a corporate partner based in London and is co-head of our global insurance sector group. He has wide-ranging experience in public and private M&A, demergers, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and equity capital markets transactions.

Clients have turned to Dan for advice on projects across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, giving him extensive cross-border expertise. Dan has experience of working on deals that have high levels of public, political and market scrutiny.

Dan is ranked as a “leading individual” for “M&A: Upper Mid-Market and Premium Deals” in UK Legal 500 (2023): “Dan Schuster-Woldan is easy going, knows his stuff and is very commercial and proactive”. “He is my go-to M&A lawyer in the UK insurance space; he is very commercial and an excellent transaction lead” (Chambers and Partners Guide, 2023). 

Dan has spent time in the firm’s offices in Germany as well as on secondment to Goldman Sachs and RBS. He is a fluent German speaker.

Dan has led on multiple substantial transactions, including advising: 

• on the proposed sale of the Telegraph newspaper and the Spectator magazine in the UK
• Phoenix Group on the acquisition of Sun Life UK from Sun Life Financial of Canada
• A TDR Capital-led consortium on the proposed combination of LeasePlan with ALD, Societe Generale’s car leasing division, for €4.9 billion in cash, shares and warrants
• Dialog Semiconductor on its recommended takeover by Renesas Electronics Corporation of Japan
• intu properties (in administration) on its financial restructuring
• Greene King on its recommended takeover by CK Asset Holdings of Hong Kong
• Old Mutual on its managed separation, resulting in four separately listed, independent businesses
• AXA on the acquisition of Laya Healthcare (Ireland) from Corebridge, the proposed sale of AXA Life Europe to Cinven, the sale of its UK life insurance business in three parts, the sale of its Portuguese business to Ageas, and on the acquisition of HSBC’s insurance businesses in Asia and Mexico (during which he based himself in the firm’s Hong Kong office)
• Oaktree on the establishment of Marco Capital, a P&C insurance run-off platform and in relation to its investment in utmost, a life and pensions consolidation vehicle
• Santander on the acquisition of a majority stake in Ebury
• Athora on the acquisition of Aegon Ireland
• RSA on the sale of its Latin American businesses to Suramericana and its Italian branches to ITAS Mutua
• Julius Baer on the acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s international wealth management business outside the U.S., which involved business transfers in 20 countries
• RBS on the consortium bid for ABN AMRO and its recapitalisations by HM Treasury during the global financial crisis
• on the IPOs of Royal Mail, Brit and Direct Line, and HSBC’s rights issue

Dan studied law at the London School of Economics.

Dan is fluent in English and German, and speaks some Spanish.