Corporate Advisory

Our Corporate Advisory group is widely recognised as market-leading in New Zealand and the 'go-to' for complex corporate advisory and commercial work. We are known for investing in relationships, advising on ground-breaking transactions, and providing sophisticated, clear advice to significant local and international clients.

Our focus is on understanding the unique priorities of each client and delivering smart, innovative advice in a digestible way, so they can get on with ensuring the deal is a success.
 

Our lawyers work across specialities to deliver advice on a broad range of issues to both local and international clients, ranging from NZX 50 corporates to private equity and fund managers.
Our areas of expertise include:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Equity Capital Markets
• Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)
• Private Equity
• Commercial contracts
• Joint Ventures and other commercial arrangements
• Investment in New Zealand by overseas entities
• Compliance and corporate governance
• Insolvency and debt restructuring
• Funds management
• Competition and Antitrust
• Technology
• Outsourcing

Some of the recent work we've done with clients includes:

• Advising Tilt Renewables on its NZ$3.24 billion takeover by way of scheme of arrangement.
• Advising Fonterra on its sale of its China farms, which consisted of two significant offshore transactions totalling $555 million.
• Acting for Freightways on the acquisition of Big Chill, including the NZX compliance aspects of the transaction.
• Assisting WEL Networks on the sale of its 85% stake in Ultrafast Fibre Holdings as part of the NZ$854 million sale of the entire business to First State Investments.
• Advising ANZ on the $762 million sale of its asset finance business, UDC Finance Limited, to Japan's Shinsei Bank.
• Advising Auckland International Airport on its NZ$1.2 billion capital raise by way of an underwritten placement and share purchase plan. The capital raising was the largest secondary offering in New Zealand history.
• Acting as lead deal counsel to Fonterra on the $633 million sale of its interest in DFE Pharma (a world-leading pharmaceutical company) to CVC (a leading European private equity fund).

Our Corporate Advisory team is ranked 'Tier 1' for Corporate and M&A in the Legal500 Asia Pacific 2022 guide, Band 1 for Corporate / Commercial in Chambers Directories 2022 and 'Tier 1' for M&A by IFLR1000 2022. We were named 'Outstanding' in Corporate and M&A by AsiaLaw 2021.

At the NZ Law Awards in 2020, the team received an Excellence Award, and in 2019 they were recognised as 'Deal Team of the Year'. Many of our deals and transactions consistently receive finalist placings or awards at both the NZ Law Awards and the Australasian Law Awards, as well as INFINZ Awards and the IFLR Awards.