Partner

Graham Conlon

Languages

English

Social media

Graham heads the CMS corporate team across the Middle East. Having originally commenced his career at Linklaters, Graham advises on high-profile private equity, joint venture and M&A transactions throughout the Middle East, Europe and beyond. Graham holds a Masters in Finance from the London Business School (with a principal focus on corporate finance and M&A/private equity) and clients have remarked that Graham is "very pragmatic" and "very commercial" in his approach. He is ranked by Chambers and Partners, the Legal 500 and other legal directories as a leading lawyer.

Awards & Recognitions

01 –

Quote

'Graham Conlon demonstrated unparalleled leadership, vision and genuine care about the success of the deal. Graham has an extraordinary ability to distill complex legal issues into practical, actionable advice. Importantly, he always maintains a high-level, strategic view of the deal, knowing which aspects are important and are worth fighting for, and which ones we can give away, taking into account the specific needs of a client.'

Legal 500, 2025
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"Graham is a pleasure to work with - he is collaborative, approaches problems with a commercial mindset and is technically very strong."

Chambers and Partners 2024
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“Graham’s analytical capability is extremely high. I never worried that he would miss any issues, which was a tremendous comfort. He was dedicated, very committed, available day and night and exceeding his normal brief.”

Feedback from US-based PE fund
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"Graham Conlon is no doubt a heavyweight in corporate and M&A. With his calmness and strong argumentation, he is particularly good in any kind of negotiation."

The Legal 500
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“He was always calm during very tough negotiations and kept his position, advising me on all the terms and giving me ways to mitigate the risk.”

Client feedback / Chambers

Relevant experience

NJJ Capital and Horizon Capital on the acquisition of Lifecell, one of Ukraine's largest mobile operators, and Datagroup
Oman Investment Authority in relation to the sale of a 32.6% stake in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange to Saudi Tadawul Group’s (STG)
Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Company (Dussur) on the acquisition of a minority stake in Italmatch Chemicals
On a major container-terminal joint venture transaction with DP World
On a joint venture transaction with Dubai’s P&O Maritime
On the acquisition of a major stake in GlobalCorp, a leading non-banking financial services company in Egypt
On the acquisition of a major stake in one of Egypt’s largest private energy companies
On a USD 100 million joint venture with Cargill for the construction of a grain terminal
On the sale of Spearhead, a leading food and agricultural business managing 83,000 hectares of farmland across the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Romania, to Accession Capital Partners
Horizon Capital and Datagroup on the leveraged acquisition of Volia, a leading cable and broadband service provider
Discovery Life Sciences (Discovery), a US-based bio-specimen, genomic sequencing, cell and immunohistochemistry services firm, on its acquisition of a bio-specimen solutions organisation
Cinven across five jurisdictions (involving over 60 CMS lawyers) on the acquisition of Partner in Pet Food
On the sale of TIP Trailer Services (a leading equipment service provider headquartered in Amsterdam and operating in 17 countries) to I Squared Capital
On the acquisition of Todini Costruzioni Generali (an Italian headquartered company with subsidiaries and operations in many jurisdictions) from Salini Impregilo SpA/Webuild SpA
Advent International on various transactions, including the acquisition of PPF and subsequent EUR 315 million sale to Pamplona
On the acquisition of JDR Cables UK, a leading supplier of subsea umbilicals and power cables to the offshore energy industry
On the acquisition of the CDA Group Limited, a UK-based retailer of high quality kitchen appliances
On the acquisition of Trimo Group, a leading provider of complete solutions for building envelopes and steel facade systems
Horizon Capital on the sale of a stake in Ciklum, a leading global software engineering and solutions company
One of the exiting shareholders on the sale of Spanish cable operator Ono to Vodafone for a reported enterprise value of EUR 7.2 billion
A consortium led by Bancroft Private Equity on its sale to East Capital Explorer of a majority stake in Starman (the leading Estonian cable TV and broadband services provider in Estonia) for an Enterprise Value of EUR 107 million
A consortium of private equity investors on the acquisition and subsequent EUR 1.6bn disposal of the entire issued share capital held in Mobiltel EAD to Telekom Austria

Publications

Beyond the language barrier - Getting cross-border deals done

Education

2013 - Masters in Finance, London Business School, London, UK

2001 - Diploma in Legal Practice, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham, UK

2000 - LL.B (Hons), University of London, King’s College, London, UK

Practice Areas

Corporate

sectors

Private Equity

Insights

Global Reach

Insights

Global Reach

Select your region

Graham Conlon

Languages

Social media

Relevant experience

Publications

Education

Practice Areas

sectors

Insights by Graham

CMS advises NJJ and Horizon Capital on USD 435m financing from EBRD and...

CMS advises NJJ and Horizon Capital on historic acquisition of Datagroup-Volia...

Turning the Corner? CMS European M&A Outlook 2024

CMS advises EBRD on 35% investment in Ukraine industrial park project

Insights

Global Reach

Select your region

Graham Conlon

Languages

Social media

Relevant experience

Publications

Education

Practice Areas

sectors

Insights by Graham

CMS advises NJJ and Horizon Capital on USD 435m financing from EBRD and...

CMS advises NJJ and Horizon Capital on historic acquisition of Da­tagroup-Volia...

Turning the Corner? CMS European M&A Outlook 2024

CMS advises EBRD on 35% investment in Ukraine industrial park project

CMS advises NJJ and Horizon Capital on historic acquisition of Datagroup-Volia...