18/10/2017

Gilbert + Tobin today announced it is advising IOOF Holdings on its acquisition of ANZ’s OnePath Pensions and Investments business and Aligned Dealer Groups for $975 million and associated capital raising.

The deal will transform IOOF into the second largest advice business by both number of advisers and funds under advice.  

The acquisition was accompanied by a 20-year strategic partnership between IOOF and ANZ, under which IOOF will distribute its wealth products through ANZ’s banking network, and a $450m equity capital raising launched simultaneously with the acquisition.

The multi-faceted nature of the deal, the complexity of the separation of the business from the larger ANZ Group and the relevant regulatory considerations, combined to make it particularly complicated and challenging.

Given this, lead Partner Craig Semple said he was particularly delighted the firm was able to help IOOF achieve such a successful outcome in such a transformative deal.  

“IOOF is a seasoned and accomplished acquirer, and it was exciting, and personally rewarding, to work side-by-side with the experienced IOOF senior management team on this deal, and to together secure the results we did.  We were able to do this by applying the firm’s market leading strengths – M&A, technology, regulatory, banking and equity capital markets – over a relatively short period of time to get this complicated deal done,” Craig said.

IOOF was supported by a team of Gilbert + Tobin lawyers across a number of disciplines.

Partner Craig Semple and lawyers Robert Sinni and Grace Chia drove all aspects of the M&A acquisition and overall deal co-ordination. Partner Tim Gole, Special Counsel Melissa Fai and lawyer Clare Harris advised on the strategic partnership, transitional services and separation arrangements. Partners Paula Gilardoni and Gina Cass-Gottlieb advised on regulatory matters and Partner Simon Lynch and lawyers Jeff Browne and Andrew Kourpanidis advised on debt arrangements.

Partners Peter Cook and Alex Kauye led the capital raising with support from lawyers Ana de Navi and Ciara Coleman.

The deal is expected to close in late 2018.

Gilbert + Tobin’s M&A/Corporate Advisory team is consistently ranked at the top of the M&A and ECM league tables. Gilbert + Tobin is 1 of only 3 firms, and the only independent Australian firm, to be ranked band 1 in M&A, ECM, private equity, acquisition finance and competition/regulatory for Australia by Chambers Global 2017. Gilbert + Tobin’s Banking + Infrastructure team has been awarded an Advisory Excellence Award by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. The firm also won a number of awards at the 2017 Australasian Law Firm Awards including Australian Deal of the Year, M&A Deal of the Year, Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year, Equity Markets Deal of the Year and International Deal of the Year. Gilbert + Tobin is the only law firm to be named Law Firm of the Year at the Lawyers Weekly Law Awards for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017.