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Annie is a specialist corporate lawyer with considerable experience across complex corporate transactions and strategic advisory engagements.
Annie’s experience includes business acquisitions and divestments, takeovers and schemes of arrangement, equity capital markets transactions and other high value transactions. She also regularly advises on foreign investment into New Zealand and leads the firm’s foreign investments practice.
Annie acts for clients in a variety of industries including healthcare, agriculture and dairy, corporate real estate and SaaS businesses. She is the lead legal adviser to a number of NZX and/or ASX listed entities and also acts as a trusted adviser for a number of local and international private investors and family offices in relation to their New Zealand investments.
Annie serves as an independent director on the board of NZX-listed Mainfreight.
Recent transaction and other experience
Public mergers and acquisitions
- Advising NZX-listed Manawa Energy on NZX/ASX-listed Contact Energy’s $1.86 billion takeover proposal by a scheme of arrangement
- Advised NZX-listed Vital on its successful defence of an unsolicited partial takeover offer proposal from Empire Technology
- Advised NZX-listed Rakon on its response to a proposed $400 million takeover by scheme of arrangement
- Advised KRX-listed Lunit on its AU$296 million takeover of ASX-listed Volpara by scheme of arrangement
- Advised NZX/ASX-listed Pushpay on the$1.63 billion takeover of the company by scheme of arrangement by a bid consortium comprising Sixth Street and BGH Capital
- Advised ASX-listed Centuria Capital Group on its successful $172 million cash and scrip full takeover offer for NZX-listed Augusta Capital
Private mergers and acquisitions / private equity
- Advised UK-based Access Group on its acquisition of New Zealand headquartered business Tradify – a job management and business software company
- Advised Australian private equity fund Genesis Capital on various New Zealand investments and bolt-on acquisitions
- Advised TSX-listed Trilogy International Partners on the $1.7 billion merger of 2degrees with Orcon Group
- Advised NYSE-listed Unity Software on its US$1.625 billion acquisition of Weta Digital’s digital assets
- Advised NYSE-listed Vontier Corporation on its acquisition of New Zealand based technology company Invenco Group
- Advised the founding family members of NPD, a leading New Zealand fuel distributor and retailer, on the management buyout of their majority shareholding in NPD
- Advised the shareholders of Steelmasters Group on the sale of the group to ASX-listed Coventry Group for $45 million
- Advised The Lines Company on the sale of Influx Energy Data to Intellihub
- Advised Access Group on the AU$100 million acquisition of the Accountants Practice Management Group from ASX-listed Reckon
- Advised UK-based Access Group on its acquisition of Unleashed Software – an inventory management software company
- Advised NZX-listed Green Cross Health on the sale of its Community Health division to Australian private equity firm, Anchorage Capital Partners, for $50 million
- Advised major shareholder of Dairy Holdings on design and implementation of sales process leading to introduction of Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board as a strategic 24.9% shareholder
Foreign investment
- Advised Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Plc on the New Zealand aspects of its $11.1 billion acquisition by way of a scheme of arrangement of ASX-listed Coca-Cola Amatil
- Advised Powering Australia Renewables on its overseas investment consent application for its $3.05 billion consortium acquisition with Mercury NZ of NZX/ASX-listed Tilt Renewables by scheme of arrangement
- Advised ASX-listed Centuria Capital Group on its overseas investment consent application for its $172 million cash and scrip full takeover offer for NZX-listed Augusta Capital
Equity capital markets
- Advised NZX/ASX-listed The a2 Milk Company Limited as a placement participant in a $218 million capital raising by NZX/ASX-listed Synlait Milk Limited
- Advised the independent directors of NZX-listed Investore Property Limited on two underwritten placements and share purchase plans with aggregate value of $180 million
- Advised NZX/ASX-listed Pushpay on various underwritten block trades by founders and directors of the company
- Advised NZX-listed Pacific Edge on an institutional placement and subsequent share purchase plan
- Advised NZX/ASX-listed AFT Pharmaceuticals on the initial public offering ($310 million initial market capitalisation)
Governance and strategic advice
- Adviser to the board of NZX/ASX-listed The a2 Milk Company Limited
- Adviser to a number of NZX-listed issuers, including Channel Infrastructure NZ Limited, Green Cross Health Limited, Argosy Property Limited and Scott Technology Limited
- Adviser to a number of high net worth private investment vehicles and family offices
Debt financing
- Advised the founding family members of NPD, a leading New Zealand fuel distributor and retailer, on debt financing arrangements related to the management buyout of their shareholding in NPD
- Advised Green Cross Health on its debt refinancing arrangements
- Advised Waipa Networks Limited on its debt refinancing arrangements