Glenn Shewan

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Glenn is a specialist competition, regulatory and overseas investment lawyer, advising on merger control, cartels and misuse of market power claims.

Glenn has worked as a competition lawyer in a number of jurisdictions and has advised clients on many of New Zealand's most significant competition law matters in recent years.

He has extensive experience advising on the competition law aspects of mergers and acquisitions, having acted for leading corporate clients on major global transactions in Australia, the UK and Europe. In New Zealand, he has acted on high profile competition matters including advising: BP New Zealand on the NZCC’s first ever competition study into the retail petrol industry and the subsequent government process to impose new legislation to regulate the fuel market; Mylan (now Viatris) on its acquisition of a number of pharmaceutical brands from Pfizer; Maersk Line on New Zealand merger control issues associated with the acquisition of Hamburg Sud; and Ampol on its acquisition of Z Energy.

Glenn has also assisted clients with large scale cartel investigations and advised on misuse of market power issues. Glenn’s cartel experience includes advising on leniency applications for cartel participants and assisting clients in responding to large scale information requests. In addition, he is a regular speaker on cartel leniency issues at conferences in New Zealand and internationally.

Alongside his competition merger control work, Glenn assists foreign acquirers of New Zealand land and business assets to obtain approvals from the Overseas Investment Office. He is also experienced in providing advice on regulated entities, having advised clients in the electricity, gas, telecoms and airport sectors.

Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2024 recognises Glenn as a 'Next Generation Partner' for competition. Chambers Asia Pacific 2024 ranks Glenn as a leading lawyer for competition/antitrust. In Chambers Asia Pacific 2022, Glenn was also ranked as a leading lawyer in competition/antitrust. Clients describe him as an "accomplished practitioner," noting that he is a "very personable, hard-working, responsive and intelligent lawyer," is "always very helpful" and – a detail stressed by more than one client – "well connected overseas." Glenn is also widely acclaimed for his diligence when acting on contentious competition matters including cartel investigations and misuse of market power. In a previous edition, clients said Glenn is “a very very good operator and has good judgement.” Lexology’s Who’s Who Legal rates Glenn as a ‘Thought Leader’ on competition issues.

Work highlights

Acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of Pfizer OTC pharmaceutical brands
Advised GSK on the New Zealand aspects, including successful application for Commerce Commission clearance, for its global acquisition of a range of over the counter pharmaceutical products from Pfizer.

Acquisition by Tronox of Cristal
Advised Tronox on the New Zealand aspects, including successful application for Commerce Commission clearance, for its global acquisition of Cristal, a competing titanium dioxide supplier.

Authorisation of provisions for commingling arrangements
Advised Tabcorp Australia (Tabcorp) on the successful application for Commerce Commission authorisation to allow Tabcorp to commingle totalisator horse and greyhound racing betting pools with the New Zealand Racing Board.

Fletcher Building acquisition of Higgins Group Holdings
Advised Fletcher Building on the NZ$305 million acquisition of Higgins construction company and obtaining Commerce Commission clearance.

Bauer acquisition of APN Magazines (now NZME.) clearance application
Advised magazine publisher Bauer on its successful clearance application for its acquisition of rival magazine titles from APN. The transaction brings together under one publisher many of New Zealand's leading magazine titles, including Woman's Day, Australian Women's Weekly, New Zealand Women's Weekly, The Listener, North & South, Metro and Simply You. The clearance application proposed a new market definition in the news and media sector, which the Commerce Commission accepted given the different types of media that now comprise the publishing industry.

Commerce Commission process for Life Technologies' acquisition of Thermo Fisher
Advised Life Technologies on all aspects of the Commerce Commission process in New Zealand on its US$13.6 billion acquisition of Thermo Fisher. The transaction created a global leader serving research, life sciences, speciality diagnostics and applied markets. This was a large, global transaction involving coordination of filings across a number of jurisdictions.

Commerce Commission clearance for Vodafone's acquisition of TelstraClear
Advised Vodafone on its successful application for clearance to acquire rival telecommunications provider TelstraClear. The deal brought together New Zealand's second and third largest telecommunications operators and faced significant regulatory hurdles as well as a high level of scrutiny from within the industry. The complexity of the transaction was increased as a result of the need for the parties to enter into ongoing supply and services arrangements in order to provide continuation of services to shared downstream customers.

Carter Holt Harvey's sale of pulp, paper and packaging business
Advised Rank Group on the sale of its pulp, paper and packaging business to Oji Holdings Corporation and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan for NZ$1.037 billion. This transaction represented one of the largest transactions in New Zealand in recent years, and one of the largest investments in the New Zealand economy by Japanese investors.

Fletcher Building sale of Pacific Steel to BlueScope Steel
Acted for Fletcher Building on the sale of the downstream long-products rolling and marketing operations of Pacific Steel to BlueScope Steel in a transaction valued at approximately NZ$120 million. The sale includes Pacific Steel's rolling mill and wire drawing facilities in Otahuhu together with its Fijian rolling mill.

Cartel investigations and leniency applications
Advised domestic and international leniency applicants on their applications for immunity in New Zealand for cartel conduct. Other matters have involved advising clients on their response to allegations of cartel conduct, including representing them in front of the Commerce Commission and assisting them to respond to compulsory information requests.

Misuse of market power
Advised a range of companies with substantial market power on access to facilities, predatory pricing and other potential misuse of market power conduct. Representing clients in Commerce Commission investigations into alleged misuse of their market power.

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Work highlights

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