Profile
Ben Eaton focuses his practice on the tax aspects of real estate transactions and investment funds. He has deep experience advising on the tax aspects of real estate investment, financing, development, and leasing, as well as the structuring of funds and joint ventures investing in real estate and real estate debt, and transactions involving real estate operating businesses.
Ben is recognised in The Legal 500 UK 2023 with one source calling him “a pragmatic problem solver who is adept at managing large scale cross-border projects with multiple stakeholders.” According to Chambers & Partners UK 2022, Ben is “a big-picture thinker who is very commercial.”
Capabilities
Experience
- Advised on the establishment of a joint venture between Patron Capital and Curation Capital to acquire a PBSA asset in Manchester.
- Advised Patrizia on the £60m corporate sale of Bow Square, a build to rent asset in Southampton, to CompassRock
- Advised Ardent on the £50m corporate acquisition of The Royal Exchange, London.
- Advised Revcap on investment by its Whiteberry segregated mandates on investment into a French real estate investment platform and subsequent investments by that platform.
- Advised Revcap on investment by its Whiteberry segregated mandates on investment into an Irish residential developer.
- Advised Revcap on the acquisition by its Whiteberry segregated mandates on the acquisition of real estate assets in Finland and Spain.
- Advised Revcap on the establishment of its Whiteberry series of segregated mandates comprising commitments from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and a U.S. public pension fund.
- Advised a joint venture between Oxford Properties and Trinity Investment Management on its £420m corporate acquisition from LabTech of Victoria House, London.
- Advised Valor Real Estate Partners on the establishment of a new £1bn separate account for a leading North American capital source focusing on European logistics assets and seeding with assets previously acquired and managed by Valor.
- Advised the owners of Oxford Technology Park on their £183m sale and forward funding of the technology park to newly formed Life Sciences REIT having previously advised on the corporate reorganization and debt refinancing of the asset.
- Advised MGT Investment Management and Lincoln Property Company in relation to the landmark Station Hill development in Reading.
- Advised Dream Industrial REIT on its $1.3bn corporate acquisition from Clarion of a portfolio of 31 logistics properties in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia and Spain.
- Advised Revcap on its joint venture with Longmead Capital for the £143m corporate acquisition from Ares of Three and Four Piccadilly Place, Manchester.
- Advised Linus Digital Finance AG on the establishment of commercial real estate debt funds part funded by a €183 million limited recourse, revolving funding line from Bain Capital Credit and a German bank.
- Advised a Middle Eastern Institutional Investor on its €80m acquisition from Eurocommercial Properties NV of Chasse Sud, a French hypermarket and associated joint venture arrangements with TwentyTwo Real Estate.
- Advised Landscape Acquisition Holdings Limited (now Radius Global Infrastructure, Inc.) on its $860m acquisition of AP WIP Investments, an aggregator of real property interests underlying wireless telecommunications cell sites.
- Advised Black Dragon Capital on is $120m acquisition from Belden Inc. of Grass Valley, a manufacturer and supplier of video broadcast equipment and services.
- Advised Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets on the disposal of Macquarie European Rail.
- Advised British Airways Pension Fund on the establishment of a joint venture with Supermarket Income REIT and subsequent acquisition from British Land of a c.25% interest, alongside Sainsbury’s and Aviva, in a portfolio of 26 Sainsbury’s supermarkets subject to a securitisation structure.
- Advised Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate Investment Management and Tristan Capital Partners on their £245m corporate acquisition from LabTech of The Holborn Links Estate.
- Advised Westway JV Limited and Kernel Court Limited on the £190m sale to APG of the Westway group, owners and operators of student accommodation in London and Guildford.
- Advised Trinova Real Estate and a Latin American family office on the £78m corporate acquisition of 103 Mount Street, London.
- Advised British Airways Pension Fund on the £78.5m corporate acquisition and leaseback of an office asset from Ted Baker plc.
- Advised the shareholders on the sale of Stemcor Global Holdings Limited, a steel trading and distribution company, to Cedar.
- Advised Revcap on its Whitehawk series of joint ventures investing in assets in the UK, France and Germany.
- Advised a Latin American family office on its joint venture with Trinova Real Estate for the £62m acquisition of 33 Kingsway, London from Aviva.
- Advised The Collective on its joint launch with DTZ Investors of the COLIV Fund with target investor commitments of £650m.
- Advised a joint venture between a U.S. managed real estate private equity fund and Trinity Investment Management on the £186.5m sale of five UK science parks.
- Advised a joint venture between a US managed real estate private equity fund and Trinity Investment Management on the £62.75m of a UK science park.
- Advised Paloma Capital on their £180m second commercial real estate fund.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, Chambers Global, Tax: Real Estate, 2022-2023
- Listed, Chambers and Partners UK, Tax: Real Estate, Band 3, 2021-2022; Band 2, 2023
- Listed, The Legal 500 UK, Corporate Tax, 2018 and 2021-2023
- Listed, The Legal 500 UK, Real Estate Funds, 2022
- Team Member, PERE Global Awards, Law Firm of the Year: Fund Formation in Europe, 2018
- Member, The Law Society’s Tax Committee and Chair of the Stamp Taxes Working Group
- Associate Member, British Property Federation Tax Committee
- Member, Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group.
Credentials
Education
- LL.M., University of Cambridge, Selwyn College, 1993
- Law Society Finals, The College of Law - Chester, 1992
- M.A., University of Cambridge, Selwyn College, 1991
Admissions
- England and Wales