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Portrait ofCharles Currier

Charles Currier

Senior Partner
Chair of the Board for CMS UK and its international offices

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Cannon Place
78 Cannon Street
London
EC4N 6AF
United Kingdom
Languages English

Charles is Senior Partner and Chair of the Board for CMS UK and its international offices. As Senior Partner, Charles focuses on building strong relationships with clients, intermediaries, professional services firms and local regulators across all the firm’s geographic regions, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.

As an ambassador for the firm, its clients and its people, Charles champions the importance of wellbeing and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion, creating opportunities for all to ensure a strong sense of belonging.

Prior to his role as Senior Partner, Charles was Co-head of the Global Corporate Practice Group for nine years and he has been a member of the Board since 2010.

For over 25 years Charles has advised utilities, generators, developers, funds and other financial investors on transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors during which time he has worked on some of the highest value and most complex mergers and acquisitions in the energy sector. He has been recognised for many years as one of the leading energy and infrastructure lawyers in the UK.

As a Corporate partner, Charles advised on many multi-billion dollar transactions, from advising on the restructuring of the UK’s gas distribution industry to working on some of the world’s largest renewables projects.

Legal directories such as Legal500 and Chambers have consistently described Charles as a lawyer with strong commercial acumen, a common sense approach, and a focus on practical solutions.

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Education

  • 1995 – LLB, King’s College, London
  • 1996 – LPC, College of Law, London
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01/05/2024
Charles Currier becomes Senior Partner of CMS
London, 1 May 2024. International law firm, CMS, is pleased to announce the appointment of Charles Currier as Senior Partner of the firm’s UK LLP, effective today. Charles, who has been at CMS for nearly...
29/01/2024
CMS advises Equinor as it takes full ownership of Empire Wind following...
International law firm CMS has advised Equinor, one of the world’s largest offshore wind developers, on its swap transaction with bp in the US, which will see Equinor take full ownership of the Empire...
02/10/2023
CMS advises Ocean Winds on Moray East Offshore Wind Farm partnership
International law firm CMS has advised Ocean Winds, a 50-50 joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE, on the sale of a 16.6% stake in the 950 MW Moray East Offshore Wind Farm (“Moray East”)...
15/08/2023
CMS advises Legal & General on the UK’s biggest investment in ground source...
CMS has advised Legal & General Capital (Legal & General) on its further investment in The Kensa Group (Kensa), together with Octopus Energy (Oc­topus). Kensa is the UK’s leading manufacturer and installer...
21/06/2023
Success for CMS at The Lawyer Awards
International law firm CMS was named Private Equity Team of the Year at the 2023 Lawyer Awards ceremony held in London, alongside being Commended and Highly Commended in two further categories. CMS won...
24/03/2023
CMS advises Brookfield on acquisition of stake in X-ELIO
International law firm CMS advised Brookfield Renewable (Brookfield), one of the world’s largest publicly traded, pure-play renewable power platforms, on its acquisition of a further 50% stake in global...
10/11/2022
CMS advises Hydro Rein on its 50/50 joint venture with Commerz Real to...
International law firm CMS has advised Hydro Rein on its agreement with Commerz Real to establish a 50/50 solar joint venture which will acquire a Danish solar portfolio. Completion of the joint venture...
31/10/2022
CMS advises Octopus Energy on takeover of Bulb Energy
CMS has advised Octopus Energy Group (Octopus), the British renewable energy group specialising in sustainable energy, on its takeover of Bulb Energy’s (Bulb) 1.5 million customers, following an almost...
05/08/2022
CMS advises consortium on acquisition of interest in world’s largest offshore...
International law firm CMS has advised a consortium comprised of GLIL Infrastructure and Octopus Energy Group on its agreement to acquire a 12.5% interest in the Hornsea One Offshore Wind Farm from Global...
04/04/2022
CMS advises a Consortium on acquisition of 60% stake in National Grid gas...
International law firm CMS has advised a Consortium comprising Macquarie Asset Management, a global asset manager and the world’s largest infrastructure manager, and British Columbia Investment Management...
31/03/2022
CMS advises Kansai on its participation in a consortium acquiring a 50%...
International law firm CMS has advised The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (“Kansai”) on its participation in a consortium led by Glennmont Partners and comprising other institutional investors from...
31/01/2022
Time for transition: Energy M&A 2022
While world leaders have been gathering for COP meetings for decades, what made COP26 perhaps particularly notable is that the private sector also gathered in force, and with a commitment and determination to be a key driver in the decarbonisation of the world’s economies.  In previous years, there have been murmurings from various corporates that to make social or environmentally driven investment decisions may not align with their fiduciary duty to act in the interests of shareholders. As shareholder activism has driven the debate into boardrooms from above, this attitude is rapidly reversing direction. While returns are generally seen as lower in the clean sector compared to, say, the oil & gas sector, being invested in the green transition is increasingly seen as a key route to preserving and protecting shareholder value. At the same time, voluntary and mandatory climate related disclosures are aligning the drivers for investors across the board so that capital is increasingly driven by the metrics they produce.  This is being reflected in, among other things, the plummeting cost of capital for green investments. At the same time high carbon intensive investments, such as coal based projects and businesses, are struggling to secure funding, with many facing in­solv­ency. In­vest­ments in the energy transition, a key part of the green transition, will principally take the form of M&A. The outcome of COP26 and the momentum it has generated means that European dealmakers in the energy sector will be even busier in 2022. Europe leads the world in the energy transition and the race to net zero is driving near-record levels of dealmaking – notably in wind and solar photovoltaic generation. At the same time, the energy transition is both expanding and fragmenting the energy sector. For many, it has traditionally been focused on energy generation. The transition is bringing to the fore less visible technologies. Everything from traditional hydropower to grid-scale batteries, electrification of transport and hydrogen. It is also bringing into the mix sectors that have not traditionally been focused on energy, such as industrial decarbonisation, shipping and mining for the natural resources needed for the energy transition. In parallel with this, there is a huge and growing story around energy transmission and distribution. Electricity networks will need to expand massively to facilitate electrification and new technologies. They are also becoming smarter with the use of digital technology to optimise the way power is distributed, traded and consumed. Further, new types of networks may provide investment opportunities for those looking for stable long term assets, such as hydrogen and carbon networks. Against this background, traditional fossil fuel-based players are decarbonising their operations. For the oil and gas majors, this means acquiring or significantly enhancing their capabilities in renewables, including wind, solar and hydrogen, while simultaneously divesting selected carbon-intensive assets in response to mounting ESG pressures. This may be one of the reasons why 50% of respondents in our study point to distress-driven deals as a top sell-side driver. Change is endemic in the energy sector, but the current transition makes the years since liberalisation of energy markets in the late 1980s seem almost steady-state in comparison. Despite the momentum and push for capital to be invested in the energy transition, there remain obstacles, not least the limited pipeline of good quality investment opportunities, continuing concerns over lockdowns and COVID-19 variants, financing difficulties arising from potentially unstable long term revenue streams and diminishing rates of return. Notwithstanding these challenges, our study finds that energy sector M&A will increasingly be an engine driving capital into propositions that match social and political ambitions for the green transition. Key findings  Energy remains a premium asset class for most institutional investors, with its performance during the pandemic and impetus from COP26 further enhancing its at­tract­ive­ness75% of energy companies are considering an acquisition and/or divestment in 2022Alongside premium assets, in some subsectors there are undervalued targets driving buy-side activity, with sellers shedding distressed assets as the sector shifts in response to the energy transition45% think COVID-19 will be a major M&A obstacle in 2022, but this remains a fluid situation that can change rapidly