Juan Thornley

Bio

Juan Thornley is Partner in the Corporate department. He specialises in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and insolvency, capital markets and private equity transactions.

Juan has extensive experience advising financial services businesses (particularly banks and insurers) on restructuring, M&A and regulatory matters. He also has a wealth of experience acting on corporate transactions relating to listed companies.

He is a member of the regulatory team, advising on all aspects of financial services legislation including insurance.  He also heads the Isle of Man team advising on occupational and personal pension schemes.

Juan is rated in Legal 500 (2020) as a Leading Individual for Corporate and Commercial and referred to as a “stand-out individual”.  He is also recognised as a key lawyer for Banking and Finance.

Juan is an Isle of Man Advocate, BVI Attorney and a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales (non-practising). He is also a Notary Public.

He is a member of the Isle of Man’s Bank Resolution and Recovery Technical Advisory Group.

Expertise:

• Acting as lead adviser to The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited on the transfer of the Isle of Man Bank deposit-taking, lending, investment and insurance intermediary business to RBSI, by way of court-sanctioned transfer scheme.
• Advising Santander on the transfer of its deposit-taking and mortgage businesses in the Isle of Man for ring-fencing purposes, pursuant to a court-sanctioned scheme.
• Representing Avingtrans plc as Isle of Man counsel on its acquisition of Hayward Tyler Group plc through an Isle of Man scheme of arrangement.
• Advising on certain Isle of Man aspects of the acquisition by Basalt Infrastructure Partners of Manx Telecom plc.
• Acting for the Barclays group on the transfer of the business of Barclays Private Clients International Limited to Barclays Bank plc – establishing the precedent for the court-sanctioned transfers of banking business under Isle of Man law.
• Acting as lead advisor to Duncan Lawrie group on the sale of its Isle of Man investment management business and loan book.
• Advising on the Isle of Man regulatory aspects of a reorganisation of a multi-national insurance group.
• Advising CVC and Blackstone in relation to Isle of Man aspects of its £3 billion acquisition of FTSE 250 company Paysafe plc.
• Advising on the sale by an international banking group of its Isle of Man fiduciary services business.
• Acting for AIM listed PME African Infrastructure Opportunities plc in respect of its proposed reverse takeover of South African rail services business, Sheltham.
• Advising on multiple corporate and finance matters for a leading UK infrastructure and real estate investment group.
• Acting for London Stock Exchange listed Qatar Investment Fund plc in respect of matters including the implementation of a series of tender offers for the purchase of its ordinary shares.

Education:

College of Law, London (England)

University of Nottingham (England)