Our work

Sale of AMI Insurance
Advised AMI Insurance on the NZ$380 million sale of its ongoing insurance business to IAG.

Blackstone Group
Advised The Blackstone Group on the acquisition by its private equity funds of the Burger King business in New Zealand.

Acquisition of Independent Liquor
Advised Asahi Group on the New Zealand law aspects of the NZ$1.5 billion acquisition of Independent Liquor, Asahi's largest ever acquisition.

Acquisition of Gareth Morgan Investments
Advised Kiwibank on the acquisition of the Gareth Morgan Investments funds management business.

Heartland
Advised Heartland New Zealand on its acquisition of PGG Wrightson Finance.

Sale of Masterpet Corporation
Advised on the NZ$105 million sale of Masterpet Corporation to NZX-listed EBOS Group.

Charlie's takeover
Advised Asahi Group in relation to its takeover of Charlie's Group.

Fletcher Building takeover of Crane Group
Advised Fletcher Building on its NZ$1.3 billion takeover of Australian building products company Crane Group. This transaction is the first successful scrip-based takeover offer a New Zealand company has made for an Australian company and is also the largest on-market takeover by a New Zealand company of an Australian public company to date. Previously advised Fletcher Building on its NZ$1 billion cross-border acquisition of Formica Corporation.

Suncorp-Metway – Sale of Tyndall Investment Management
Advised Suncorp-Metway on the New Zealand aspects of its A$128.5 million sale of Tyndall Investment Management to Nikko Asset Management of Japan.

Air New Zealand – acquisition of stake in Virgin Australia
Advised Air New Zealand on competition and structuring aspects of its A$145 million strategic acquisition of a 14.99% stake in listed Australian airline Virgin Australia.

Sale of shareholding in PGG Wrightson
Advised Pyne Gould Corporation on the lock-up agreement for the sale of Pyne Gould Corporation's 18.3% shareholding in PGG Wrightson to Agria (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Agria Corporation. The sale resulted in the successful partial takeover by Agria of PGG Wrightson.

Z Energy – New Zealand Superannuation Fund joint venture with Infratil
Advised the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation on a NZ$700 million joint venture deal with Infratil for the acquisition of Shell New Zealand's refining and downstream business (now known as Z Energy). This was New Zealand’s largest M&A deal of 2010.

Sale of New Zealand Guardian Trust
Advised Suncorp-Metway on its NZ$42 million sale of New Zealand Guardian Trust to Australia's oldest trust company, The Trust Company.

Tyco International
Advised Tyco International on the New Zealand aspects of its A$171 million acquisition of Signature Security Group from Australian-listed Oceania Capital Partners.

Sale of Bomac
Advised Bomac, New Zealand’s largest privately owned dedicated animal health company, on its sale to German healthcare company Bayer AG (Bayer's largest transaction for 2010).

DANONE – sale of Frucor
Advised Groupe DANONE on the sale of the Frucor Beverages Group business (New Zealand's second-largest non-alcoholic drink company) to Suntory of Japan for in excess of NZ$1.45 billion.

Canterbury Clothing Company
Advised on the sale of the Canterbury Clothing Company's Australian operations, along with an interest in the New Zealand operations, to JD Sports Plc.

Mainfreight's acquisition of Wim Bosman Group
Advised New Zealand logistics company Mainfreight on its €110 million (NZ$205 million) acquisition of Netherlands-based Wim Bosman Group.

Acquisition of Simply Squeezed
Advised Frucor Beverages Group (New Zealand's second-largest non-alcoholic drink company) on the acquisition of Simply Squeezed.

Aggrekko Plc – New Zealand acquisition
Advised Aggrekko Plc on the acquisition of New Zealand Generator Hire.

Prime Media Group
Advised Australian-based Prime Media Group on the sale of OnSite Broadcasting New Zealand to Sky Network Television.

OneSource New Zealand businesses
Advised Archer Capital in relation to the NZ$132 million sale of the OneSource Group, comprising the distributor of Konica Minolta products and an associated finance company. Previously advised Archer Capital on the acquisition of OneSource.

Sale of Powerco
Advised on Prime Infrastructure’s (then known as Babcock & Brown Infrastructure) sale of part of its interest in Powerco to Queensland Investment Corporation for NZ$423 million.

Acquisition of Formica Corporation
Advised Fletcher Building on the NZ$1 billion cross-border acquisition of US-based Formica Corporation. Bell Gully advised on all aspects of the transaction which resulted in the creation of the largest global manufacturer of decorative surfaces and high-pressure laminates in the world. The transaction was named New Zealand Deal of the Year at the ALB Australasian Law Awards.

CKI's purchase of Vector's Wellington assets
Acted as New Zealand counsel to Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), the largest listed infrastructure company in Hong Kong, in its successful bid to purchase Vector's Wellington electricity network.

Ironbridge takeover of MediaWorks
Advised Ironbridge Capital, a leading independent Australasian private equity group, on its takeover of all the shares and options in New Zealand media company CanWest MediaWorks. Ironbridge Capital's offer to acquire all of the shares in MediaWorks followed a highly contested bidding process for CanWest's 70% stake. Subsequently advised Ironbridge Capital on the debt and equity restructuring of MediaWorks.

Waste Management merger with Transpacific Industries Group
Advised Waste Management on its merger with Australia's Transpacific Industries Group, which saw Waste Management amalgamate into a New Zealand subsidiary of Transpacific. This ground-breaking transaction is the only significant cash amalgamation (NZ$903 million) involving a public company in New Zealand in the last ten years.

Contact Energy merger with Origin Energy
Advised Contact Energy on a potential NZ$8 billion merger (which ultimately did not proceed) with Origin Energy to create Australasia's largest integrated energy company. The deal was to involve a dual-listed company (DLC) structure enabling Contact Energy and Origin Energy to retain separate legal entities and maintain their individual stock exchange listings.