Asialaw Profiles
The Guide to the legal markets of the Asia-Pacific

A highlight of Simpson Grierson’s finance practice last year saw the team advise the borrower of a syndicated facility provided by three Australian and New Zealand banks to Fisher & Paykel Finance.

One of the firm’s major clients is Westpac New Zealand who the firm advised as the lender of a secured facility on the refinancing of Silver Fern Farms. Westpac also called on the firm to advise it and Bank of Scotland as the lenders of a NZ$120 million club facility provided to Vision Senior Living investments. A final highlight saw the firm advice Westpac on the financing of the Jacks Point residential and resort township in Queenstown.

On the capital markets side the team acted for Auckland City Council on a NZ$150 million retail issuance, the first bond issue by a local authority in New Zealand. Another highlight was the firm’s work for A2 on a three-for-four pro-rata renounceable rights issue to New Zealand resident shareholders. The offer raised NZ$11.3 million.

One of the biggest deals Simpson Grierson worked on last year saw it act for the Toll Group on the sale of the national rail business to the New Zealand government for approximately NZ$700 million.

The team also acted for the BG Group over its lapsed NZ$8.08 billion bid for Origin Energy. Because Origin owns Contact Energy the bid could not go ahead without a separate bid for Contact. The firm managed to secure an exemption from this law.

On the sellers side, the team is acting for Matariki Forests on the sale of 140,000ha estate. The deal is expected to be worth in excess of NZ$1 billion.

Additionally the firm acted for Japanese beverage company Kirin Holdings over its NZ$8.2 billion takeover offer for brewer Lion Nathan.

Simpson Grierson has impressive statistics to back up its dispute resolutions practice with 18 cases noted in the New Zealand Law Reports in 2008/9. The firm can also point to a 5:1 win loss ratio in the Supreme Court in the same period.

A high-profile client is Rolls-Royce and last year Graeme Christie acted for the car company in relation to a NZ$150 million damages claim over the Kinleith Co-Generation Plant. The firm also acted for Westpac Banking in a challenge to the Commissioners re-assessment of a number of cross-border transactions from the period 1998-2002 valued in excess of NZ$900 million.

In addition, Tim Stephens was called on by OMV New Zealand to advise in a dispute over joint venture arrangements in relation to the Commerce Act. The firm was also involved in a multi-party litigation with cross-border issues arising out of a financing transaction where damages claims were made totalling NZ$190 million.