James Hawes

James is a partner in the firm's corporate group. He 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.

• Asia Pacific Legal 500 Corporate/M&A 2022 - Leading Lawyer
  
• Chambers Asia-Pacific Corporate/Commercial 2023 - Up and Coming Lawyer

Examples of Work

• Vocus Group - acquisition of 2Degrees
• Shinsei Bank - $NZ762 million acquisition of UDC Finance
• Shinsei Bank - 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 (NZ$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
• Akzo Nobel - disposal of Crown Paints pursuant to competition rulings following its acquisition of ICI
• SVG Capital - £200 million partially underwritten rights issue and placing
• BUPA - £90 million acquisition of London's Cromwell Hospital
• FirstGroup - acquisition of the leading US transportation provider Laidlaw
• BUPA - joint venture with UK based sports and leisure company, ADDleisure

Other Credentials

• Solicitor, England and Wales
• New Zealand Private Equity & Venture Capital Association - Council Member