Ian Beaumont

Ian is a member of the Russell McVeagh Board and 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 complex and high-profile 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.

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

Most recently, he has advised:

• Westpac Group on the sale of its New Zealand life insurance business to Fidelity Life for NZ$400m, including a 15-year life insurance distribution arrangement between Westpac NZ and Fidelity Life.

• Square, Inc. on the New Zealand aspects of its A$39 billion acquisition of Afterpay via a scheme of arrangement.

• TASK on the New Zealand aspects of its merger with Plexure Group.

• 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.

• The Joint Lead Managers on the IPO of My Food Bag.

• 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.

• ​Serko on its $57.5 million capital raising, consisting of a $47.5 million upsized placement and a follow-on share purchase plan. 

• Inspired Education on its acquisition of the ACG schools business from Pacific Equity Partners.

• The lead manager on Synlait Milk's $200 million placement and share purchase plan in November 2020.

• 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).

• ​Greenstone Financial Services on its staged acquisition of Pinnacle Life. 

• NetEase Games on the sale of Wellington game studio A44 Games to Kepler Interactive.

• Business Syndications Limited on the acquisition and syndication of Natural Habitats Limited and Skyline Aviation.

• 3F Holdings Limited on its acquisition of the business assets of Intercoll Limited.

• 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.

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

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 is ranked in the Chambers and Partners 2023 Guide for Corporate/Commercial law, was selected by his peers for inclusion in the Best Lawyers® New Zealand Guide in 2022 in the field of Mergers and Acquisitions Law, and was recognised by Asialaw Profiles 2018 for Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A and Private Equity, is recognised by IFLR1000 2022 Guide as Highly Regarded in Capital Markets: Equity, M&A, and is described as "outstanding - personable and knowledgeable" in the 2019 IFLR1000 client feedback.