Rich Jones
TMT Partner, London
"I specialise in advising clients – particularly in heavily-regulated sectors such as telecoms, financial services and healthcare – on their most complex commercial agreements and data issues. I balance my technical advice with a business-like approach to ensure robust, but practical and sustainable commercial arrangements."
Overview
Professional experience
Education and qualifications
Overview
Rich has in-depth experience of advising clients on their most critical commercial arrangements, particularly 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, putting in place commercial arrangements among mobile and fixed line network operators, MVNOs, infrastructure SPVs, towercos and other operators of digital infrastructure, including for the purposes of infrastructure roll-outs, offtake agreements, portfolio management, site sharing, upgrade programmes and others.
In 2017, Rich spent six months 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.
He also has significant experience advising clients in the technology, healthcare and financial services sectors, which are heavily-regulated and frequently involve close collaboration with technical advisers and consultants.
Rich also advises clients on their data protection compliance programmes, as well as data issues in the context of corporate transactions. He spent time working in Linklaters’ Brussels office in 2018, helping clients across the world on 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. as part of its €350m divestment of its surgical patch product, TachoSil
- 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, in the context of its US$807m sale and leaseback arrangements with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia
- Linde on its divestment of and carve-out arrangements in relation to its €86bn merger with Praxair, to create the global number one industrial gases supplier
- Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board on its NZ$900m acquisition of 70% of Spark New Zealand’s TowerCo business, the first carve-out of telecoms towers in the New Zealand market