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Overview
Arun Birla is the second Managing Partner of Paul Hastings and Vice-Chair of our international Tax practice, based in the London office. Mr. Birla has been named as one of the fifty most influential lawyers by Financial News (2023).
Mr. Birla is widely recognised as one of the leading international tax lawyers in London. He has significant experience in tax, providing tax advice to UK and international clients on a wide range of matters including, M&A, private equity, private and credit funds, structured and asset finance, joint ventures, financing arrangements and restructurings.
Recognitions
- Shortlisted for Managing Partner of the Year - Legal Business Awards 2023
- Shortlisted for Partner of the Year – British Legal Awards 2023
- Shortlisted for UK Tax Team of the Year – International Tax Review EMEA Awards 2023
- Named as a Bankruptcy Tax Specialist – Turnarounds & Workouts 2023
- Named among "Fifty Most Influential Lawyers 2023" – Financial News
- Recognised by Chambers & Partners UK as a leader in his field since 2011, most recently in 2023: Tax – "He is one of the rare examples of tax lawyers who combine deep tax knowledge with business acumen."
- Recognised by Chambers Europe, 2023: Tax
- Recognised by Legal 500 UK, 2023: Corporate Tax:
- "Arun Birla is a pleasure to work with. Calm and collected he cuts through to the real issues."
- "Very commercial, great client service."
- "Arun Birla – accessible, responsible, very commercial and client friendly."
- "Pragmatic, commercial, while very knowledgeable not just n tax law but its application within our niche industry."
- "Clear, concise, commercial advice."
- Shortlisted for Responsible Leader of the Year – Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2023
Education
- Oxford Institute of Legal Practice, L.P.C., 1997
- Keble College, Oxford, M.A., 1996 (Awarded the Slaughter and May prize)
Representations
- Oakley Capital on its acquisition by Oakley Capital Fund V of Flemming Dental, Excent, and Artinorway Group in a carve-out from European Dental Group, a leading pan-European oral care and services provider, to form one of the leading dental laboratories groups in Europe.
- Francisco Partners in its acquisition of Macrobond, a leading global provider of software and financial data, from Nordic Capital.
- Abry Partners, Castik Capital, and the management team in connection with the £1.15 billion sale of 100% of the share capital of Reward Gateway, a leading global SaaS employee engagement platform, to Edenred, a digital platform for employee benefits services and payments headquartered in France.
- Brillio, a global leader in enterprise digital transformation solutions, in its acquisition of CloudStratex, a UK-based, cloud, advisory, and digital transformation company.
- Veson Nautical, the global leader of maritime freight management solutions, and two of its private equity investors, Francisco Partners and Pamlico Capital, in connection with the acquisition of leading vessel valuation data provider VesselsValue.
- Oakley Capital, on its acquisition of legal information platform, vLex, from its founders and Caixa Capital Risc. The founders of vLex have reinvested alongside Oakley Capital, which will now be the majority shareholder.
- Oakley Capital in connection with the sale of Iberian business software provider, Grupo Primavera, to Cegid and its subsequent reinvestment in the combined business, alongside Cegid’s investors, with an enterprise value of $6.88 billion.
- BaseCamp Group Ltd, European Student Housing Fund I and European Student Housing Fund II (together the "Sellers"), on the sale of a portfolio of 11 private student and residential accommodation assets to Xior Student Housing NV, together with BaseCamp Group entities that are responsible for BaseCamp's property management and property development operations.
- Vector Capital and its portfolio company, Cheetah Digital in the merger between Cheetah Digital and CM Group, a portfolio of martech companies focused on multichannel digital marketing.
- Multiple banks and funds in relation to debt facilities provided for US based aerospace and defence supplier Cobham’s public-to-private bid to acquire UK competitor, Ultra Electronics, for £2.57 billion.
- Abry Partners II on the acquisition of mobile communications provider Link Mobility Group; and on the sale of cloud computing and security company Basefarm to Orange Group
- City Football Group, the owner of football-related businesses including Manchester City FC, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, and a minority shareholder in Yokohama F. Marinos, on the $400m investment by China Media.
- The ad hoc committee of existing Tier 2 noteholders on the £700 million capital raising plan for the Co-operative Bank Intermediate Capital Group on the €5.2 billion Senior Debt Partners Ill, the then largest pooled direct lending fund in Europe in 2017
- LaSalle Investment Management on the £800 million Real Estate Debt Strategies Ill, the second largest real estate debt fund raised in the UK during 2017
- Activum SG on a number of funds
- Assisting with representations made before the European Court of Justice which led to a successful decision on the VAT treatment of Bitcoin transactions
- Regularly acts for asset managers and underwriters
news
- Paul Hastings Advised Abry Partners on the Sale of Options Technology to Vitruvian Partners - October 16th, 2024
- Paul Hastings Advises Abry Partners and Chambers and Partners in Acquisition of Lamp House Strategy - July 3rd, 2024
- Paul Hastings Advised Abry Partners in Chambers and Partners Acquisition - November 14th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Earns Top Ranking in Chambers UK 2024 - October 20th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Shortlisted for Six Awards at the British Legal Awards 2023 - August 24th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advised Oakley Capital on Investment in Flemming Dental, Excent, and Artinorway Group - August 10th, 2023
- Five Paul Hastings Lawyers Named Among 2023 Bankruptcy Tax Specialists by Turnarounds & Workouts - August 7th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advises Francisco Partners in Acquisition of Macrobond from Nordic Capital - July 18th, 2023
- Arun Birla Named Among “Fifty Most Influential Lawyers 2023” by Financial News - May 24th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advised Abry Partners and Castik Capital in £1.15 Billion Sale of Reward Gateway to Edenred - May 17th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advised Brillio in Acquisition of CloudStratex - May 9th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Advised Veson Nautical and Investors Francisco Partners and Pamlico Capital in Acquisition of VesselsValue - May 4th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Again Recognized by Chambers Europe 2023 - March 20th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Shortlisted for Nine Awards at Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2023 - January 24th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Again Receives Top Rankings in Chambers UK 2023 - October 20th, 2022
- Paul Hastings Advises Oakley Capital on Acquisition of vLex - September 7th, 2022
- Paul Hastings Advises Oakley Capital on $6.8 Billion Merger with Cegid Group - July 27th, 2022
- Paul Hastings Advises BaseCamp on Sale of €939 Million European Student Accommodation Portfolio to Xior Student Housing - June 27th, 2022
- Paul Hastings Recognized by Chambers Global 2022 - February 21st, 2022
- Cheetah Digital to Merge with CM Group - October 21st, 2021
Recognitions
- Paul Hastings’ Tax Practice Earns Eight Rankings Across Four Jurisdictions in International Tax Review’s World Leaders 2025 Guide - September 9th, 2024
- Paul Hastings Again Recognized by Chambers Europe 2024 - March 18th, 2024
- Paul Hastings Shortlisted for Four Awards at the Women, Influence & Power in Law UK Awards 2024 - January 16th, 2024
- Paul Hastings Earns Top Ranking in Chambers UK 2024 - October 20th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Shortlisted for Six Awards at the British Legal Awards 2023 - August 24th, 2023
- Five Paul Hastings Lawyers Named Among 2023 Bankruptcy Tax Specialists by Turnarounds & Workouts - August 7th, 2023
- Arun Birla Named Among “Fifty Most Influential Lawyers 2023” by Financial News - May 24th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Again Recognized by Chambers Europe 2023 - March 20th, 2023
- Paul Hastings Again Receives Top Rankings in Chambers UK 2023 - October 20th, 2022
- Paul Hastings Shortlisted in Four Categories at Legal Innovation Awards 2022 - March 2nd, 2022
- Paul Hastings Recognized by Chambers Global 2022 - February 21st, 2022
- Recognized for Excellence in Legal 500 United Kingdom - October 1st, 2021
- Diala Minott Named 'Lawyer of the Year' at the Legal Business Awards, 2021 - October 1st, 2021
- Named Transatlantic Firm of the Year at the British Legal Awards 2020 - November 19th, 2020
- Recognized at the Law Society Excellence Awards 2020 - October 15th, 2020
- Recognized at the Legal Business Awards 2020 - October 1st, 2020
- Paul Hastings Wins Award for Managing Complexity and Scale and Ranked #3 in Europe for Legal Expertise by the Financial Times - September 13th, 2019
- Recognized by Legal Week and American Lawyer as M&A Team of the Year and Private Equity Team of the Year - June 14th, 2019
- Recognized by Chambers Global 2019 - February 14th, 2019
- Paul Hastings Named Finance Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2018 - June 27th, 2018
insights
- The Future of Fintech in the U.K. – The Kalifa Review - March 8th, 2021
- The U.K.’s Digital Service Tax: What Businesses Should Be Aware Of - May 8th, 2020
- PH COVID-19 Client Alert Series: U.K. Tax Implications - March 24th, 2020
- PH COVID-19 Client Alert Series: UK Economic Response to COVID-19 - March 18th, 2020
- U.K. Announces Draft Legislation for Digital Services Tax - September 11th, 2019
- Low Value of Pound Spurs Investment - September 5th, 2019
- DAC6 - New Mandatory Rules Regarding Disclosure and Tax Reporting - January 22nd, 2019
- Proposed IRS Regulations Significantly Curtail Impact of Section 956 for U.S. Corporate Borrowers - November 5th, 2018
- European Tax Update - March 15th, 2018
- Private Fund Report—Summary of Key Developments—Summer 2017 - August 1st, 2017
- Establishing Business in the UK - May 9th, 2017
- European Tax Update 2017 - April 27th, 2017
- Private Fund Report—Summary of Key Developments—Winter 2016 - January 3rd, 2017
- Schemes of Arrangement in UK Public M&A: High Court Declines to Apply the Ramsay Principle - December 6th, 2016
- The Criminal Finances Bill – An Expansion of Corporate Criminal Liability with the New Offence of Failure to Prevent the Criminal Facilitation of Tax Evasion - November 30th, 2016
- CJEU Finds Withholding Tax to Be Contrary to EU Law - July 26th, 2016
- Private Fund Report—Summary of Key Developments—Spring 2016 - July 14th, 2016
- UK Votes for Brexit – Key Considerations for International Businesses - June 24th, 2016
- Hedge Fund Report: Summary of Key Developments - Fall 2015 - December 21st, 2015
- UK Patent Box Update - November 24th, 2015
Engagement & Publications
- Regularly publishes articles and has chaired and spoken at a number of tax conferences
- Co-authored the tax chapter in Joint Ventures (Fourth Edition, Sweet & Maxwell Publishing)
- Co-Authored the LexisNexis PSL guide to Joint Ventures
Involvement
- Member of the UK branch committee of the International Fiscal Association, member of the Alternative Investment Management Association and member of CREFC
- Former Social Mobility Ambassador for the Law Society
- Participated as a mentor in the Law Society Diversity Access Scheme
- Admitted to practice in England & Wales and New York