Gilbert + Tobin advised global protection solutions company Ansell on the sale of its sexual wellness business for US$600 million to a consortium consisting of Humanwell Healthcare Group, a Shanghai listed company, and CITIC Capital China.
The firm acted as lead global counsel on the transaction advising Ansell on its strategic review of the business and sale process as well as co-ordinating work streams including a significant intra group restructure across a number of jurisdictions throughout Europe, North America, South America and Asia.
The transaction involved the transfer of intellectual property, employees, medical registrations, manufacturing plants and various other assets as well as regulatory approval from the PRC authorities and FIRB. As part of the transaction, the G+T team worked closely with Ansell’s general counsel based in the US as well as Ansell’s legal team throughout the world.
The sale completed earlier this month, with the exception of Ansell’s Brazilian condom business, Blowtex, which is expected to complete at the end of this month. The sale represents the successful conclusion to the portfolio review announced by Ansell in August 2016 with regards to the Sexual Wellness business.
The Gilbert + Tobin team was led by G+T’s co-head of M&A/Corporate Advisory Neil Pathak and partner Ben Macdonald, who said they were delighted to have been involved in such a significant transaction.
“This was a complex global transaction in a highly regulated industry involving iconic brands. We are pleased to have been able to apply our deep experience and expertise in large-scale and cross border M&A transactions to help Ansell achieve a successful outcome,” said Neil.
Other key Gilbert + Tobin team members included partner Alex Kauye, special counsel, Albert Yuen and lawyers Andrew Chan and Bridget Sutton.
Gilbert + Tobin’s M&A/Corporate Advisory team is consistently ranked at the top of the M&A and ECM league tables . G+T is the only independent Australian law firm (and only 1 of 3 firms) to be ranked number 1 in M&A, ECM, private equity, acquisition finance and competition/regulatory by Chambers Global.
In recent times, the G+T team has advised on various market leading transactions including Spotless’ defence of $1.2 billion unsolicited takeover by Downer EDI, APN Property Group’s IPO of Convenience Retail REIT, Carlyle and Pacific Equity Partners acquisition of iNova Pharmaceuticals, NSW Government’s sale of the Land Title concession for $2.6 billion, TPG’s consideration of acquiring Fairfax Media, the US$1.23 billion sale of Moly-Cop out of insolvency and Cover-More on its $854 million acquisition by Zurich Insurance by scheme of arrangement.