Bell Gully leads in M&A league tables for 2017

Bell Gully has retained its market-leading position as a legal adviser for mergers and acquisitions, according to two major international league tables released in January.

Annual reviews from Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters ranked Bell Gully within the top 20 firms in Australasia in three out of four measures of merger and acquisition activity in 2017.

Bloomberg’s Global Mergers and Acquisitions Market Review named Bell Gully as the highest-ranked New Zealand law firm based on 2017 deal activity by volume, an increase in the firm’s market share compared to 2016.

Thomson Reuters’ Mergers and Acquisitions Review named Bell Gully as the highest-ranked New Zealand law firm based on their involvement in announced deals throughout Australia and New Zealand in 2017. It also ranked the firm highly for deals completed in 2017.

Thomson Reuters credited Bell Gully with advising on more than US$5.55 billion of deals in 2017, including advising Downer New Zealand on its agreement to acquire the construction, infrastructure and project management businesses of Hawkins; Downer Services EDI on the New Zealand regulatory requirements for its takeover offer of Spotless Group Holdings; and Healthe Care in relation to the scheme of arrangement to acquire Pulse Health for A$155 million.

Bell Gully is involved in a number of deals that are underway, including advising AIA on its acquisition of the Sovereign life insurance businesses. AIA agreed to acquire the Australian and New Zealand life insurance businesses from CBA for A$3.8 billion.

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