Kevin Ko

Kevin’s experience includes advising:

Public M&A experience

• Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and Aware Super on their $3.5 billion acquisition of Vocus Group Limited by scheme of arrangement.
• Yancoal Australia in relation to the unsolicited $1.8 billion take-private proposal by its major shareholder.
• MIRA on its $2.4 billion acquisition of Bingo Industries Limited by scheme of arrangement.
• Investa Property Group on the $3.4 billion contested acquisition by trust scheme of Investa Office Fund between Oxford Properties (OMERS) and Blackstone.
• Ruralco Holdings Ltd on its $469 million acquisition by Agrium Australia, a subsidiary of Nutrien Ltd, by way of scheme of arrangement.
• Web.com on its acquisition of Dreamscape Networks by way of scheme of arrangement.
• Rockworth Capital Partners on its 18% investment in ASX-listed Elanor Investors Group and related strategic alliance arrangements.
• Macquarie Asset Management and Public Sector Pension Investment Board on their proposed acquisition of Uniti Group Limited.
• Web.com on its proposed acquisition of the Webcentral Group Limited (formerly known as Arq Group Limited) by scheme of arrangement.  
• SG Fleet on its $800 million proposal to acquire Eclipx Group by scheme of arrangement.
• Chengtun Mining Group on its acquisition of Nzuri Copper Limited by way of a scheme of arrangement and related debt arrangements.
• Vango Mining Limited on its off-market takeover bid for Dampier Gold Ltd.
• Propel Funeral Partners’ successful contested takeover bid for Norwood Park Limited.
• Investa Property Group on its $276 million acquisition of a strategic stake in Investa Office Fund.
• Superloop Limited on its $228 million acquisition of BigAir Group by way of scheme of arrangement.
• Vocus Communications Limited on its A$4.3 billion merger of equals with M2 Telecommunications Ltd by way of scheme of arrangement to create the fourth largest fully integrated telecommunications company in Australia.
• Helloworld Limited on its scrip merger with AOT Group Ltd by way of an acquisition approved by shareholders under item 7 of section 611 of the Corporations Act and related 1-for-6 share consolidation.
• Uranium Resources, Inc. on its scrip merger with Anatolia Energy Limited by way of three inter-conditional schemes of arrangement and related secondary ASX listing of CDIs to create new low-cost uranium producer.
• Vocus Communications Limited on its contested A$1.2 billion merger with Amcom Telecommunications Limited – the first Australian scheme of arrangement to succeed in the face of a 20% blocking stake.
• Alsons Prime Investments Corporation on its A$361 million acquisition of Indophil Resources NL, the ASX-listed owner of a 37.5% interest in the Tampakan Project (one of the largest undeveloped copper and gold mines in South-East Asia), by scheme of arrangement.
• Count Financial Limited on its A$373 million acquisition by Commonwealth Bank of Australia Limited by scheme of arrangement.
• Rio Tinto plc on its successful A$4 billion off-market takeover bid for Riversdale Mining Limited, the ASX-listed owner of two major coking and thermal coal projects in Mozambique.
• TPG Telecom Limited on its successful A$373 million takeover of ASX-listed PIPE Networks Limited by scheme of arrangement and related A$360 million syndicated debt raising and A$66 million equity raising.
• Macquarie Capital Alliance Group on its A$836 million triple-stapled security cross-border take-private transaction by way of inter-conditional Australian and Bermudian schemes of arrangement and trust scheme.
• Macquarie Private Capital Group on its A$115 million takeover by Bear Sterns Private Equity Limited by way of inter-conditional schemes.

Private M&A experience

• SG Fleet Group on its acquisition of LeasePlan ANZ, a leading provider of fleet management and leasing services in Australia and New Zealand, from the global LeasePlan Corporation, for a combination of cash and SG Fleet shares.
• Ramsay Health Care, Sime Darby and IHH Healthcare on the Australian aspects of the proposed $1.8 billion sale of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care, the owner of hospital interests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
• Shaw and Partners on its sale to Swiss-listed EFG International and associated shareholder arrangements.
• SiteMinder Limited on its acquisition of Guestjoy OÜ, a provider of a guest communication SaaS platform to hotels.
• Newfold Digital on its acquisition of Hostopia Australia, a web hosting services company.
• Constant Contact on its acquisition of Vision6, a SMS and email marketing software platform.
• AgTrade (a global livestock, genetics, and food security group) on its acquisitions of the hay production and export assets of Hay Australia and SP Hay by way of share and asset sales.
• Direct Group Investments, a leading direct-to-consumer retail group, on its sale to CPEC Capital.
• Orcon Group and its owners on its merger with New Zealand telco 2degrees.
• SiteMinder on its $130 million selldown/investment by BlackRock, Pendal, Australian Super, Goldman Sachs and Ellerston Capital
• Schneider Electric on the Australian aspects of the sale of its Eurotherm business unit to Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company.
• Health & Safety Institute on its acquisitions of DoneSafe (a work health and safety software business) and Solv Solutions (an injury management software platform).
• Cosium on its acquisition of 100% of Monkey Software.
• The Stars Group Inc. on its acquisition of CrownBet in multiple tranches and on CrownBet’s successful bid to acquire William Hill Australia.
• Spaceship Financial Services Limited’s shareholders in relation to the sale of their shares.
• Yancoal Australia’s Independent Board Committee on its successful US$3.4 billion contested acquisition of Coal & Allied Industries from Rio Tinto.
• Beach Energy on its successful $1.585 billion competitive bid for Lattice Energy, the conventional upstream oil and gas business of Origin Energy.
• Investa Property Group on its sale of a 50% interest in the Investa Office Management platform to a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited.
• Quadrant Private Equity on its $300 million private acquisition of WorldMark Group, an automotive after-care business.
• Gardner Smith Group on its A$302 million sale to GrainCorp Limited and, simultaneously, acted for GrainCorp Limited on its $170 million acquisition of the Integro Foods business from Goodman Fielder.
• Mirvac Group on its A$327 million sale of Australian hotel assets to a consortium comprising Accor Asia Pacific and Ascendas.
• Direct Group on its acquisitions of the Reader’s Digest Australia, Reader’s Digest Asia Pacific and OverSixty businesses.
• Helloworld Limited on its multi-jurisdictional sale of the ATS Pacific inbound travel business in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji to AOT Group Limited.

Equity capital markets experience:

• Macquarie Asset Management in relation to their ANREO and placement to fund the acquisition of the New Zealand telco 2degrees.
• Firmus Grid on its $40 million equity capital raising via the issue of convertible notes and equity warrants.
• SiteMinder on its pre-IPO raising with BlackRock, Pendal, Australian Super, Goldman Sachs and Ellerston Capital.
• Yancoal Australia on its dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and associated initial public offering to raise HK$1.605 billion and related pro rata accelerated renounceable entitlement offer.
• Beach Energy on its equity raising to fund its successful $1.585 billion competitive bid for Lattice Energy, the conventional upstream oil and gas business of Origin Energy.
• Yancoal Australia’s Independent Board Committee on its US$2.5 billion capital raising to fund its successful US$3.4 billion contested acquisition of Coal & Allied Industries from Rio Tinto – the largest equity raising in Australia in 2017.
• TPG Telecom on its $400 million accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer.