Corporate & Commercial

Our 70-strong corporate and commercial group has immense experience. We are proud of our reputation for providing expert, yet practical, advice across all areas of commercial law.

Our track record is extensive, ranging from everyday transactions to the noteworthy deals of recent years. We have advised on many of the landmark transactions in New Zealand's corporate history.

We are well-connected in a small, but well-developed, commercial market. Our partners sit on key regulatory and industry bodies.

Simpson Grierson is consistently ranked as a leading New Zealand firm in the mergermarket and Thomson Reuters league tables.

Examples of our work

• VF Corporation - $288 million acquisition of merino clothing chain Icebreaker
• OMV - US$578m acquisition of Shell’s upstream oil and gas business in New Zealand
• Solid Energy New Zealand Limited - advising on all aspects of its restructuring including the sale of its mines 
• UEM Edgenta - $263 million takeover by WSP Global of Opus International Consultants
• Macquarie Capital, First NZ Capital and Deutsche Craigs - initial public offering of Oceania Healthcare, through a dual listing on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges
• Fairfax Financial Holdings - proposed $197 million takeover of NZX-listed Tower by way of scheme of arrangement​
• Accident Compensation Corporation - acquisition of a 22% stake in the Kiwibank group of companies
• Shanghai Maling Aquarius - purchase of a 50% interest in Silver Fern Farms
• Macquarie Capital - $1.81 billion sale by Origin Energy of its 53.1% shareholding in Contact Energy, one of the largest deals ever undertaken in New Zealand
• Accel Partners - $132.9 million investment in Xero by private placement
• Bright Dairy & Food Company:
  • ​$98 million accelerated rights entitlement offer by Synlait Milk
  • Synlait Milk IPO and associated partial sell-down by its shareholders, the first IPO in the New Zealand dairy industry with a foreign cornerstone investor (and the first Australasian IPO involving a Chinese joint venturer)
• CHAMP Ventures - acquisition of a majority stake in Macpac and subsequent sale to ASX-listed Super Retail Group
• nib holdings - acquisitions of TOWER Medical Insurance and OnePath Life (NZ) Limited
• Inland Revenue - numerous technology projects, including its business transformation programme
• Haier Group Corporation - takeover and subsequent compulsory acquisition of Fisher & Paykel Appliances for approximately $750 million
• Auckland Transition Agency - amalgamation of Auckland’s eight territorial authorities to form Auckland Council, which controls $29.5 billion of assets and represents nearly one-third of New Zealand’s population

For more examples of our work, please see our detailed expertise pages.