Ian Beaumont : Russell McVeagh

Profile

Ian is a partner in the Corporate Advisory Group. He focuses on public and private M&A, equity capital markets transactions, joint ventures and general listed and unlisted corporate advisory. Ian regularly provides advice to boards and senior leadership teams on significant transactions and other critical issues facing their business.

Ian has advised clients on significant and complex transactions in New Zealand and in the United States, during his time in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In recent years, Ian has advised on transactions awarded 'New Zealand Deal of the Year', 'M&A Deal of the Year', 'Capital Markets Deal of the Year', and 'Consumer, Media and Tech Deal of the Year' at the New Zealand Law Awards. He is also part of the team that took out 'Deal Team of the Year' at the 2019 New Zealand Law Awards.

Experience

Ian’s clients range across major corporates, financial institutions, investment banks and private equity.

Most recently, he has advised:

ANZ on the sale of its New Zealand asset finance business, UDC Finance, for NZ$762 million to Shinsei Bank.
Auckland Airport on its $1.2 billion capital raise by way of an underwritten placement and share purchase plan.
Oceania Healthcare Holdings Limited (co-owned by various Macquarie managed funds) on the staged sell down of its holding in NZ and ASX listed aged care provider Oceania Healthcare, including on its $301.4 million underwritten block trade in 2020.
Inspired Education on its acquisition of the ACG schools business from Pacific Equity Partners.
The joint lead managers on Augusta Capital Limited's 2020 placement and non-renounceable accelerated entitlement offer.
Spark on the restructure of the Southern Cross joint venture between Spark, Singtel, and Verizon to facilitate Telstra's investment in the joint venture and the development of the US$300m NEXT undersea data cable between New Zealand, the United States and Australia.

Other representative transactions include advising:

Mergers and acquisitions

Fidelity Life, New Zealand’s largest NZ-owned life insurer, on the New Zealand Superannuation Fund's $100 million cornerstone investment.
Advent International on its $1.05 billion acquisition of Nuplex Industries by way of a scheme of arrangement ('M&A Deal of the Year' and 'New Zealand Deal of the Year', New Zealand Law Awards).
The founder on the sale of International Volunteer HQ to Mercury Capital.
Nintex on its acquisition of Promapp, a leading business process management software company.
Spark on a number of acquisitions and divestments, including:
- the divestment by Computer Concepts Limited, Spark’s wholly-owned provider of cloud and ICT services, of the operational parts of its network services business in a management buyout;
- the acquisition by Qrious, Spark's wholly-owned AI and data unit, of NOW Consulting from private-equity owned Wherescape Software;
- the divestment by the Spark Foundation of the online fundraising platform Givealittle;
- the acquisition by Spark of business telecommunications provider, Digital Island, and the subsequent acquisition by Digital Island of the telecommunications unit of Outsource Communications Limited;
- the acquisition by Spark of marketing automation business Ubiquity Software Limited;
- the divestment by Spark of its Morepork home security business to ADT; and
- minority and follow-on investments by Spark in a number of entities, including most recently Parkable and Nyriad Technologies.
China Resources on its acquisition of minority stakes in Scales Corporation, by way of a block trade with Direct Capital, and Comvita, by way of a private placement.
Michelin on its acquisition of a 25% stake in tyre wholesaler Tyreline Distributors and retailer Beaurepaires.
The under-bidder for the New Zealand life insurance business of a major Australasian bank.
Auckland International Airport Limited on its acquisition of a minority interest in Queenstown Airport.
Brookfield Infrastructure Group Inc. in connection with its acquisition of Prime Infrastructure Group.

Capital Markets

Serko on its $56 million capital raise in 2019, including a new equity placement with Booking.com as a cornerstone investor and a secondary offering from directors and employees, with a follow-on share purchase plan.
The joint lead managers on the IPO of New Zealand King Salmon Investments Limited.
The underwriter on Synlait Milk Limited's accelerated renounceable entitlement offer ('Capital Markets Deal of the Year', New Zealand Law Awards).
The underwriter on Tourism Holdings' $80 million placement and follow-on rights offer.
The underwriter on Steel & Tube's $80.9 million capital raising via a placement and follow on rights offer.
Serko Limited on its 2018 underwritten share placement and its 2015 private placement and follow-on share purchase plan.
The lead manager on Heartland Bank’s institutional placement of shares.
The underwriter on Eroad's institutional placement and follow on share purchase plan.
Downer EDI on the offering of NZDX listed convertible redeemable preference shares by Works Infrastructure Finance (NZ) Limited.
The Warehouse Group Limited on its retail bond offer.
Auckland International Airport Limited on its underwritten accelerated renounceable entitlement offer, the first time this structure had been used in New Zealand.
Kiwi Income Property Trust on its retail offer of mandatory convertible notes.
Freightways on its private placement of ordinary shares.
JGWPT Holdings Inc. on its initial public offering.
Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. on its initial public offering.
Macquarie Infrastructure Management (USA) Inc. on several equity capital raisings totalling over US$500 million.
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. on its offering of €600 million of Euro-denominated senior notes in connection with the acquisition of eSpeed.
The dealer managers on an exchange offer by American Express Corporation for three tranches of senior notes, totalling US$4 billion.
The underwriters on two senior notes offerings by HSBC USA Inc. totalling US$3.3 billion.
HCP, Inc. on a number of offerings, including a US$1.126 billion stock offering, and senior notes offerings totalling US$2.4 billion.
XL Group plc in a US$1 billion Solvency II Directive-compliant Tier 2-own funds subordinated notes offering.

Joint ventures, corporate restructures and other transactions

NBCUniversal on its joint venture with MediaWorks to own and operate the new Bravo free to air television channel ('Consumer, Media and Tech Deal of the Year', New Zealand Law Awards).
Auckland Airport on its joint venture with Tainui Group Holdings to develop and operate a new 5-star hotel at Auckland Airport.
Telecom New Zealand, now Spark New Zealand, on its demerger into Telecom and Chorus, and related participation in the Government's ultra-fast broadband programme.
Westfield Group on the establishment of the Westfield Retail Trust.
Aurora Resurgence as the anchor investor in a recapitalization of General Maritime Corporation.

Credentials

LLB (Hons First Class), BCom, University of Otago.

Professional

Ian was admitted to practise in New Zealand in 2008 and New York in 2014.

Ian is part of our Corporate Advisory team, which has been named New Zealand's top deal firm at the 2019 New Zealand Law Awards.

Ian was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers^™ in New Zealand 2021 in the field of Mergers and Acquisitions Law, and was recognised by Asialaw Profiles 2018 for Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A and Private Equity, and is described as "outstanding - personable and knowledgeable" in the 2019 IFLR1000 client feedback.