Simpson Grierson - James Hawes

James is a corporate law specialist with experience in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and private equity and venture capital.

James was based in the United Kingdom before he started at Simpson Grierson. He spent six years working at Slaughter and May in London and has worked as in-house counsel to Balderton Capital, a leading European venture capital fund. James is now called upon for expert advice from many leading corporates and those seeking to invest in New Zealand.

James is admitted as a Solicitor, England and Wales.

Asia Pacific Legal 500 2022

Corporate/M&A

Leading Lawyer

Chambers Asia-Pacific 2023

Corporate/Commercial

Up and Coming Lawyer

Work Highlights

Auckland Council

Acting on the $833 million strategic sale and block trade of 7% of Auckland International Airport held by Auckland Council.

Kiwibank

Assisting ACC with its acquisition (and subsequent disposal) of an indirect minority interest in Kiwibank.

New Zealand Rugby

Advising on the separation of commercial operations and sale of minority stake to Silver Lake.

Infratil

Acting for UBS, Barrenjoey and Forsyth Barr on the $850 million underwritten placement and retail offer by Infratil to fund the acquisition of the residual 50% of One NZ.

Vocus Group

Acquisition of 2degrees.

Shinsei Bank

$762 million acquisition of UDC Finance.

A$300 million acquisition of 10% shareholding in Latitude Finance Group (Australia & NZ).

CHAMP Ventures

Disposal of its cornerstone shareholding in TR Group to Direct Capital (NZ fund).

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets & Aware Super

Acquisition of telecommunications group, Vocus Group ($3.5 billion).

BP

Internal restructure of bp Oil of BP’s NZ freehold property portfolio and disposal of 49% interest in ultimate holding entity of the portfolio.

Mighty Ape

Advised shareholders on company sale to Australian e-commerce operator, Kogan.com ($130 million).

Craigs Investment Partners, Jarden Partners and Macquarie Securities

$301 million block trade of shares in Oceania Healthcare.

Craigs Investment Partners and Macquarie Securities

$65 million placement and ANREO of shares in Vista Group International.

UBS

Acting in connection with a $400 million accelerated renounceable entitlement offer and placement by Infratil for the purposes of part financing the proposed acquisition of Vodafone NZ.

Finaccess Capital

Partial takeover of Restaurant Brands.

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.

Shanghai Maling Aquarius

Purchase of a 50% interest in Silver Fern Farms.

Accident Compensation Corporation

Advising on its $231 million acquisition of a 22% stake in the Kiwibank group of companies.

Macquarie Capital

$94 million underwritten accelerated rights entitlement offer by Restaurant Brands.

UBS New Zealand

Demerger of NZX listed Trustpower into two entities.

CHAMP Ventures

Acquisition of Macpac.

Vocus Communications

Takeover offer, by ASX-listed Vocus, to acquire FX Networks for approximately $115.8 million.

Macquarie Capital

Acting for the lead manager of the $100 million initial public offer of shares in Vista Group.

Deutsche Craigs, Macquarie, UBS New Zealand

Acting for the joint lead managers on the $262 million initial public offer of shares in Hirepool Group.

Spotless Group Holdings

New Zealand counsel to Spotless on the A$992 million initial public offering and ASX listing.

Milford Asset Management

Acquisition, alongside Bath Street Capital, of New Zealand Guardian Trust from ASX-listed Perpetual for $68.5 million.

Fidelity Life

Acting on Fidelity's $145 million acquisition of the life insurance business of Tower.

Craigs Investment Partners, First NZ Capital, Forsyth Barr, and Macquarie Capital

Acting on the $155 million block trade of Quadrant Private Equity's residual holding in Summerset Group.

Macquarie

$50 million underwritten placement by Precinct Properties.

Revera

Disposal of IT infrastructure and data business to Telecom for $96.5 million.

Balderton Capital

Implementation of investments in numerous start-ups and growth stage companies including those in SCVNGR (layered reality products), Justyle (Chinese online fashion retailer) and KupiVIP (Russian online fashion retailer).

Global Infrastructure Partners

£1.5 billion acquisition of London Gatwick Airport.

BUPA

£1.44 billion disposal of hospitals division to Cinven.

London's Albion Equity Partners

Joint investment with The Licensing Company Limited in a US$4 million, 50% interest in Iconix Europe, a joint venture with US licensing company Iconix.