UPFRONT
TRANSACTIONS
Deals round-up $1.18bn Underwritten block trade by Macquarie Capital of Origin Energy’s 53.1% shareholding in Contact Energy Macquarie Capital’s purchase of Contact Energy shares from Australia’s Origin Energy for $1.81bn was one of the largest block trades ever in New Zealand. Simpson Grierson advised underwriters Macquarie Capital, Russell McVeagh acted for Origin Energy and Bell Gully advised Contact Energy. The sell-down is one of the largest secondary markets transactions in New Zealand in the last decade, and one of the largest deals ever undertaken in the country. The deal was done under new legislation, specifically, a clause in the new Financial Markets Conduct Act that allows greater flexibility for listed issuers to assist its shareholders to sell-down their shareholdings, particularly those with a controlling stake or who were issued the relevant shares in the 12 months prior to the intended sell-down.
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Value (NZ$)
Adviser
Client
Lead lawyer(s)
Additional firms involved
Arvida Group on acquisition of three Auckland aged care facilities and associated $30m underwritten equity placement by book build offer, and $5m Share Purchase Plan
$62m
Chapman Tripp
Arvida Group Ltd
Roger Wallis, Adrien Hunter, Nick Letham
Anthony Harper
Anthony Harper
Aria
Simon Marks
Chapman Tripp
Arvida Group share placement
$30m
Bell Gully
Arvida Group Ltd
Anna Buchly
Forsyth Barr Group Ltd, Chapman Tripp
Marlborough Lines acquisition $89m of Yealands Wine Group
Simpson Grierson
Marlborough Lines
Michael Pollard, Anastasiya Gutorova
Mayne Wetherall
M2 acquisition of the CallPlus Group
$250m
Lowndes Jordan
CallPlus Group Graham Jordan and shareholders Andrew Wallace
Z Energy acquisition of Chevron New Zealand’s Caltex
$785m
Chapman Tripp/ Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Buddle Findlay
Z Energy Chevron New Zealand
Geof Shirtcliffe and Emma Sutcliffe, Paul Foley, Patricia Green and Neil Anderson, Simon Vodanovich, Lisette Hood and Tony Wilkinson
Deutsche Craigs Ltd underwritten block trade of 11.37% of the shares in The New Zealand Refining Company Ltd held by Chevron New Zealand
$82m
Chapman Tripp
Deutsche Craigs Limited
Rachel Dunne, Philip Buddle Findlay (acted Ascroft for Chevron New Zealand) Minter Ellison Rudd Watts (acted for The New Zealand Refining Company Limited)
Simpson Grierson
Macquarie Capital
Michael Pollard and Andrew Matthews
Bell Gully
Contact Energy Chris Gordon, Brynn Gilbertson, Chris Goddard
Transaction
Sale of Origin Energy's majority $1.18bn shareholding in Contact Energy
Private placement of shares in AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited
US$7.5m
Harmos Horton Lusk Limited
AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited
Tim Mitchelson
Bidco No 1 Limited acquisition of 100% of shares in Elldex Holdings Ltd
$30m
DLA Piper NZ
Coveris Holdings S.A. (a Sun Capital Partners, Inc entity)
Reuben Woods, Daniel Arapere, Laura Scampion
Buddle Findlay Chapman Tripp/ Minter Ellison Rudd Watts
Russell McVeagh (Pip Greenwood) Russell McVeagh, Simpson Grierson
Chapman Tripp, KPMG (New Zealand, Australia and United Kingdom)