03 July 2007
Sydney, 3 July 2007: A strategic investment in its people and client relationships has helped catapult Clayton Utz to a leading position on the Second Quarter 2007 Thomson Financial[1] Australian M&A league tables released today.
Clayton Utz ranked second in both Announced and Completed deals, with 51 deals valued at over US$29.8 billion and 59 deals worth US$26 billion respectively.
Commenting on the announcement, M&A partners Rod Halstead and Michael Parshall said Clayton Utz’ results were a reflection of the firm’s solid investment in its M&A, private equity and acquisition finance teams.
"We've experienced a fast-moving market in terms of deal volumes, complexity and innovation. To meet this challenge, we’ve invested heavily in the right people across our offices nationally - people who are leaders in their fields, who understand our clients' businesses and industries intimately and who have the commercial judgement and execution skills to match the challenges of today's complex M&A environment," Mr Parshall said.
Mr Halstead, who heads Clayton Utz' M&A practice nationally, added: "Over recent years we have made a number of key lateral appointments, including, among others, Philip Kapp in private equity and Michael Riches in acquisition finance. We are now seeing the results of that investment across the board. We have also benefited from organic growth with a very strong team of senior lawyers coming through. The depth of talent spread nationally across our offices is outstanding and I expect the team to go from strength to strength as the current level of activity continues."
Congratulating the team on its performance, Clayton Utz Chief Executive Partner David Fagan said the firm's foresight in investing in key people and growth sectors was paying dividends. "The Thomson results are a testament to the quality of our people and client relationships, and shows that our strategy of being the most client-focused law firm in Australia is working."
Clayton Utz was involved in several high profile transactions over the past six months, including many that evolved from long-standing relationships with key clients.
For example, the firm's Melbourne and Sydney offices advised on Toll's US$5.7bn de-merger - involving the strategic restructure and spin-off of its infrastructure assets into a new company, Asciano Limited - one of the top completed deals of 2007. This follows on from earlier work advising Toll on all aspects of its A$6 billion plus off-market takeover of Patrick Corporation Limited, the largest completed takeover deal of 2006.
The firm has also continued to work alongside Mayne Group spin-offs Symbion Health and Mayne Pharma as they participate in ongoing consolidation in the healthcare sector. The firm is advising Symbion Health on its merger with Healthscope and sale of businesses to Ironbridge and Archer. Earlier in the year the firm completed the A$2.6 billion plus sale of Mayne Pharma to US-based hospital products manufacturer Hospira.
Also among some of the larger transactions of the past six months, Clayton Utz is advising Brookfield Asset Management on its proposed acquisition of the Multiplex Group and longstanding client CanWest on the restructure of its interest in the Ten Network. The firm's Brisbane office was also kept very active, advising Transpacific Industries on its over A$1.2bn acquisition of Cleanaway and its earlier acquisition of Twigg Group and Baxter Group in 2007 and Waste Management in 2006.
Mr Halstead said the firm's complementary strengths in private equity, leveraged finance and traditional industry M&A was a real asset.
"There is no doubt that private equity was the hot topic this year, but it was only part of the M&A story," Mr Halstead said. "We were pleased to have been involved in a number of the stellar private equity deals, however most of the completed transactions this year were a result of more traditional M&A activity in sectors ripe for consolidation."
[1] The Thomson Financial League Tables rank eligible mergers, acquisitions, repurchases, spin-offs, self-tenders, minority stake purchases and debt restructurings for the relevant period. The results referred to in this release are attributable to Thomson's Second Quarter 2007 Mergers & Acquisitions Review.
