Ben Paterson : Russell McVeagh

Profile

A key dealmaker for Russell McVeagh, with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures and overseas investment. Ben has acted on a number of significant transactions providing high quality legal advice to large scale, high-value corporations on complex financial transactions, including for Pacific Equity Partners, CHAMP Private Equity, The Riverside Company, Carlyle, Fonterra and Lion. He is trusted and highly valued for his ability to work cooperatively and achieve exceptional and commercially focused results, and has recently advised Pacific Equity Partners on its sale of Manuka Health New Zealand.

Ben also has significant experience in advising receivers and administrators on restructuring and insolvency related M&A, and sponsors on infrastructure projects.

Experience

Ben's work highlights include acting for:

Pacific Equity Partners on its sale of Manuka Health New Zealand.
The Riverside Company on its acquisition of the Hiway Group.
CHAMP Private Equity in respect of a key New Zealand investment.
The Carlyle Group on the New Zealand aspects of its acquisition of Accolade Wines.
Lion on its acquisition of Havana Coffee.
Manuka Health New Zealand on its acquisition of Neuseelandhaus GmbH (a German distributor).
Lion on its acquisition of Harrington's Breweries.
Lion – Dairy & Drinks on its sale of the Yoplait yoghurt business to Goodman Fielder.
The Riverside Company on its sale of Simcro.
Lion on its acquisition of Panhead Breweries.
Oceania Healthcare on its initial public offering and dual listing on the NZX and ASX.
Primavera Capital and Shanghai Pharma on their consortium acquisition (via a scheme of arrangement) of Vitaco Holdings.
CDH Fund V on its acquisition of an 80% interest in The Better Health Company (otherwise known as ‘Go Healthy’), a substantial New Zealand manufacturer and distributor of natural extracts and dietary supplements.
Pacific Equity Partners on its $700m divestment of Griffin’s Foods to Universal Robina Corporation.
Pacific Equity Partners on its acquisition of Manuka Health New Zealand.
Daiken on its proposed acquisition of a large Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) production plant in Mataura (by way of acquisition of shares in Dongwha New Zealand Limited) from Dongwha International and Laminex.
Fonterra Co-operative Group on its $342m joint venture with Abbott Laboratories, to develop a hub of five large scale dairy farms in China.

Swissport on the New Zealand aspects of its acquisition of Aerocare (an Australian and New Zealand ground handling business).
Accor Hotels on the New Zealand aspects of its proposed acquisition of the Mantra Group (by way of scheme of arrangement).
A bidder for the Vector Gas transmission and non-Auckland distribution assets.
The shareholders of Hally Labels in their divestment of the Hally Labels group to Hexagon Mercury Capital.
Newmont Mining Corporation on its US$101m divestment of the Waihi Gold Mine to OceanaGold.
Griffin’s Foods Limited on the acquisition of 50.1% of the shares in Proper Snack Foods Limited.
Genesis Energy on its $735m IPO.
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited on its establishment of ‘Trading Among Farmers’ including establishing a new private share market operated by NZX Limited, and an initial public offering by the Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund and its listing on both the NZSX and ASX.
A bidder for the New Zealand and Australian consumer finance businesses of GE Capital.
CITIC on its investment in LanzaTech.
Crescent Capital Partners Management and New Zealand Panels Group on the acquisition of the Bestwood and Kopine businesses from Carter Holt Harvey.
Oaktree Capital on the restructuring of, and investment in, the Mediaworks Group.
Lion on its acquisition of Lindauer and other wine brands from Pernod Ricard.
Lion on the buyback of its Newmarket brewery site.
The shareholders of Torpedo7 on their sale to The Warehouse.
Tyco International on its divestment (to Evergreen Group) of its cash handling and security operations in New Zealand and Fiji.
CKI on its $490m acquisition of Envirowaste from Ironbridge.
Pacific Equity Partners on its AU$670 million acquisition of 50% of SCA Hygiene Australasia.
The administrators of RedGroup on the sale of Whitcoulls and Bennetts.
Crescent Capital Partners Management on New Zealand aspects of the dual track IPO/trade sale process for disposal of the National Hearing Care and Bay Audiology group (ultimately divested to Amplifon in 2010 for AU$460m).
The receivers on the sale of various assets of the Pumpkin Patch retail group
The receivers on the sale of PK Furniture.
The receivers on the sale of various assets of the Hurlstone Earthmoving group.
The Secure Future Consortium on the Wiri Prison PPP.
An underbidder on the Transmission Gully PPP.

Credentials

LLB (Hons), BSc (University of Canterbury).

Professional

Ben is a member of the New Zealand Private Equity & Venture Capital Association and the Australian New Zealand Sports Law Association.

Ben was a finalist for the 2016 Young Private Practice Lawyer of the Year at the New Zealand Law Awards.

Ben joined Russell McVeagh in 2008.