Annie Steel

Annie Steel
Director

Annie is a specialist corporate lawyer with considerable experience across complex corporate transactions and strategic advisory engagements. These include 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 advisor 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 Limited.

Recognition

A number of the transactions on which Annie has advised have been nominated for industry awards. Annie was also a finalist in the Young Private Practice Lawyer of the Year (35 and Younger) category at the 2018 NZ Law Awards.

Recent disclosable matters: 
1

Advised NZX/ASX dual-listed Pushpay Holdings Limited on a NZ$1.63 billion takeover of the company by scheme of arrangement by a bid consortium comprising BGH Capital and Sixth Street

2

Advised TSX-listed Trilogy International Partners on the $1.7 billion merger of 2degrees with Orcon Group

3

Advised NYSE listed Unity Software on its US$1.625 billion acquisition of Weta Digital Limited’s digital assets

4

Advised Powering Australia Renewables on its overseas investment consent application for its $3.05 billion consortium acquisition with Mercury NZ of NZX / ASX dual listed Tilt Renewables by scheme-of-arrangement

5

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

6

Advised UK-based Access Group on its acquisition of Unleashed Software Limited – an inventory management software company

7

Advised NZX-listed Green Cross Health Limited on the sale of its Community Health division to Australian private equity firm, Anchorage Capital Partners, for NZ$50 million

 

 

8

Advised major shareholder of Dairy Holdings Limited on design and implementation of sales process leading to introduction of Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board as a strategic 24.9% shareholder

9

Advised the board of NZX Main Board/ASX listed The a2 Milk Company Limited on its NZ$162 million acquisition of Synlait Milk shares from Mitsui & Co