Our work

CKI's purchase of Vector's Wellington assets
Bell Gully 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.

ABN AMRO Capital Advisory (Australia)
Advising investment bank ABN AMRO on its proposed purchase of a 36% stake in the property arm of the McConnell Group, McConnell Property.

CPPIB takeover offer for Auckland International Airport
Bell Gully advised Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on its partial takeover offer for, and proposed amalgamation with, Auckland International Airport Limited.

ABB's electronics industry acquisition
Bell Gully advised international power and automation technology group ABB on its acquisition of the business assets of New Zealand company Vectek Electronics. Vectek has developed technology to improve the quality of the power supply in industrial installations and will operate as part of ABB's Automation Products division.

Fletcher Building’s acquisition of Formica
Bell Gully advised New Zealand building products manufacturer Fletcher Building on the acquisition of US-based Formica Inc. 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 2008.

Ironbridge takeover of CanWest 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's offer to acquire all of the shares in MediaWorks followed a highly contested bidding process for CanWest's 70% stake.

Contact Energy's acquisition of Rockgas
Contact Energy, one of New Zealand’s largest energy companies, purchased the Rockgas LPG business from its Australian parent company Origin Energy. The deal provides Contact with a unique platform to supply not only electricity and reticulated natural gas, but LPG for those homes and businesses which are not connected to gas networks or wish to use LPG to manage peak energy demands.

Endace's acquisition of Applied Watch
Bell Gully advised New Zealand-based internet security business Endace Limited on aspects of its 2007 US$5 million (NZ$6.6) acquisition of Applied Watch Technologies, a US-based developer of centralised management tools for open source software and provider of managed security services.

Rakon Limited purchase of C-MAC MicroTechnology's Frequency Control Products division
Bell Gully advised New Zealand technology company Rakon on the acquisition of the Frequency Control Products division of C-MAC MicroTechnology of France. The acquisition was funded by a NZ$60 million equity placement to institutional and habitual investors.

Carter Holt Harvey's sale of its forestry business to Hancock Natural Resources Group
Bell Gully advised Rank Group's subsidiary, Carter Holt Harvey, a New Zealand-based forest products company and also New Zealand's largest forest owner, on the sale of its forestry business to US-based forestry manager Hancock Natural Resource Group Inc. for in excess of NZ$1.5 billion. The sale comprised substantially all of its forestry interests including approximately 260,000 hectares of freehold and non-freehold forestry estate. This was the largest property transaction that New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office has had to deal with in the context of new legislation.

Carter Holt Harvey – takeover by Rank Group
Bell Gully advised Carter Holt Harvey on the NZ$514 million second takeover offer for the forest products company by Rank. Bell Gully had earlier separately advised Rank Group on funding and aspects of the acquisition of International Paper's 50.5% shareholding in Carter Holt Harvey and related issues in connection with Rank's successful first takeover in 2005, which gave it control of the forest products company. It was the first time in New Zealand that a second takeover offer was launched immediately following the closing of the first. The success of the second takeover offer allowed Rank to delist Carter Holt Harvey, then one of New Zealand's largest listed companies. The total takeover was valued at NZ$3.3 billion.

Rank takeover of Burns Philp
Bell Gully advised Rank Group on the New Zealand law aspects of its A$1.3 billion takeover of the remaining 42% of food company Burns, Philp & Company Limited it did not already own. After three extensions of the offer deadline, the successful takeover saw Rank Group privatise Burns Philp, which it had first invested in in 1997.

Waste Management merger with Transpacific Industries Group
Bell Gully advised Waste Management on its merger with Australia's Transpacific Industries Group, which saw Waste Management amalgamate into a New Zealand subsidiary of Transpacific.  Waste Management shareholders received an amalgamation payment plus a dividend payment amounting in total to NZ$903 million.  The transaction required approvals from Waste Management shareholders and the approval of the Overseas Investment Office. This ground-breaking transaction is the only cash amalgamation involving a public company that has ever occurred in New Zealand.

Airline Partners acquisition of Qantas Airlines
Bell Gully advised on Overseas Investment Commission requirements as New Zealand counsel on the Airline Partners consortium agreed proposal to buy Australian national carrier Qantas Airlines for A$11.1 billion in an A$5.60 a share offer.

Contact Energy merger with Origin Energy
Bell Gully advised Contact Energy, New Zealand's second largest listed company, 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 involved a structure enabling Contact Energy and Origin Energy to retain separate legal entities and maintain their individual stock exchange listings – Contact Energy trading on the NZX and Origin Energy trading on the ASX.  This is achieved via a dual-listed company (DLC) structure. 

Woolworths (Australia) acquisition of Foodland Associated Limited's (FAL) New Zealand supermarket business
Bell Gully advised Woolworths as NZ counsel in the cross-border funding and structuring of this NZ$2.43 million acquisition. This complex transaction involved the restructuring of FAL's NZ business from the Australian business, then the sale of the separate businesses to Woolworths and Metcash via a scheme of arrangement.

Rank Group Limited's sale of New Zealand Dairy Foods Limited (NZDF) assets to Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited and Rank Group's purchase of Meadow Fresh NZ Limited (formerly Mainland Products Limit
NZDF is a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer dairy goods and smallgoods in New Zealand. Fonterra is a leading multinational dairy company owned by New Zealand farmers and is the world's largest exporter of dairy products. Bell Gully advised Rank Group (NZDF) in its agreements with Fonterra to acquire a range of key assets from NZDF including Anchor milk and Fresh'n'Fruity yoghurt businesses and Fonterra sold its milk and yoghurt, cultured goods and smallgoods businesses to NZDF. The deal involved two contemporaneous interlinked sales and purchases of substantial businesses combined with 16 operational and ancillary agreements. Bell Gully was integrally involved in all aspects required to complete the NZ$1.17 billion deal which had to be negotiated and finalised over a period of less than four weeks.