ALFA International’s New Zealand member firm Anthony Harper offers quality, specialist, legal advice across New Zealand for its domestic and international clients.
Types of corporate transactions in which our firm has particular expertise
Our industry specialties, where our in-depth knowledge supplements our deal work, include automotive, food and beverage, logistics and transport, manufacturing, retail, financial services, retirement villages and tourism. As a full-service firm, we can call on experts in tax, cross-border investments, property, banking and finance, technology, IP, resource management and employment to give a seamless and comprehensive service.
Our experience includes mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, capital raising, corporate structuring, tax structuring, joint ventures (including limited partnerships), domestic and international supply and distribution arrangements, government and private sector procurement, corporate governance, regulatory compliance and commercial advisory work. The team’s deal book, across over 50 M&A transactions each year, extends from family businesses to listed companies, for national and international clients, leading the project or working as part of a larger team.
It is a testament to the work we do, and the results we achieve, for our national and international clients that we are ranked in leading international directories and feature prominently at the New Zealand law awards.
The size of our firm’s corporate transactions team
The team is one of the largest in New Zealand with offices in Auckland (North Island) and Christchurch (South Island). With a team on the ground in both locations we are able to provide both local knowledge and a national presence. The team, led by Chris Dann, includes 9 partners and 11 lawyers. The team is supported by experts in intellectual property, technology, employment, immigration, health and safety, litigation, banking and finance, property and tax.
Examples of transactions our firm has undertaken
- Synlait (NZX listed and minority Chinese owned dairy processor and exporter) on its purchase of Talbot Forest Cheese for NZ$30 – $40m, involving deferred settlement, pre-completion works and regulatory issues.
- Donaghys (a world leading agricultural goods manufacturer and supplier) on the urgent sale of its NZ crop packaging business to Tapex Pty, an Australian business and Donaghys’ biggest competitor in the national market. We worked through complex competition law, stock and apportionment issues.
- Scott Electrical on its acquisition of K Simpson Electrical. Extensive due diligence was required across the 10 separate branch locations. Stock obsolescence required careful management.
- Civilquip on its acquisition of Advanced Fuels’ fuel tank import, distribution and manufacturing business. Here, addressing intellectual property ownership (an issue we identified in due diligence) was key as was managing earthquake repairs and H&S exposure.
- NZX listed Scales Corporation on its purchase of Australasian freight forwarder, OceanAir (a finalist in the New Zealand Law Awards Mid-Market Deal of the Year category) and, additionally, on its purchase of a 60% stake in Shelby JV LLC, a large independent US buyer, processor and seller of ingredients for the petfood industry for US$23.2m.
- Scales Corporation on the $150 million plus sale of its coldstorage business, Polarcold, to global cold chain company Emergent Cold. This deal included a complicated intra-group restructure to ring fence the assets concerned.
- Thermakraft on its acquisition of the roof safety equipment manufacturing and distribution business of Ausmesh. We successfully delivered this cross border transaction as part of a team with the client’s legal and tax advisors in two different Australian states.
- Eden Gardens on the sale of its retirement village to Arena Living. Here, the expertise of our market leading RV practice was invaluable.
- EziBuy (Australasia’s largest clothing and home décor catalogue company) on the sale of its shares in Profile Ltd, a leading supplier of corporate uniforms.
- Volaris (a Canadian venture-capital group) on its purchase of shares in Smartrak Ltd, a GPS vehicle tracking and feet management provider. Here we worked as a cross-border team with Canadian and Australian counsel.
- Omega, a leading vehicle rental business, on the sale of its business and assets to a rival operator, including the transfer of a fleet of over 4,000 vehicles.