Press Release: Mergermarket Inaugural Australia M&A Awards Recognises Top Financial and Legal Advisors
07 September 2018
Sydney, 7 September 2018 – Mergermarket, the world’s leading news and intelligence service for mergers & acquisitions, announced the winners of its inaugural Australia M&A awards at a black-tie gala dinner on the evening of the 5th September at The Establishment Ballroom, Sydney.
The Australia M&A Awards recognise the Financial and Legal advisors’ excellence in M&A advisory of Australian-related deals and are based on the Mergermarket league tables with input from an independent judging panel of seven industry experts and two professionals from Mergermarket.
Of the Australia M&A Financial advisor nominations, Mergermarket named JP Morgan as the M&A Financial Adviser of the Year. PwC was award the Mid-Market M&A Financial Adviser of the Year while Rothschild was awarded the Inbound M&A Financial Adviser of the Year. Macquarie Group, KPMG and Lazard won the M&A Financial Adviser of the Year in respective sectors of Business Services, Consumer and Energy Mining & Utilities.
Of the legal advisor nominations, Allens was named the M&A Legal Adviser of the Year. Gilbert + Tobin was awarded Mid-Market M&A Legal Adviser of the Year and King & Wood Mallesons was named Inbound M&A Legal Adviser of the Year. Ashurst won the Business Services M&A Legal Adviser of the Year and Herbert Smith Freehills won the M&A Legal Adviser of the Year in both Consumer and Energy Mining & Utilities sectors.
For private equity sector, the Private Equity Deal of the Year Large Cap and Mid Cap was awarded to intelliHUB and Energy Exemplar respectively. Westfield Corporation was named M&A Deal of the Year.
Merrill Corporation and Risk Capital Advisors were the co-lead sponsors of the event with PwC the co-sponsor. Donavan Parto, Regional Director, ANZ of Merrill Corporation commented, “Merrill is delighted to be the key sponsor of Mergermarket’s inaugural M&A awards ceremony in Australia. Deal activity across the region continues to deliver growth year on year and with our continued commitment to invest in the local market, we’re delivering world-class technology and support for deal-makers across the complete M&A lifecycle. The awards recognise M&A excellence in the industry and we are privileged to celebrate with the best in the business.”
The complete list of the Australia M&A Awards are as follows:
Mid-Market M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – PwC
Mid-Market M&A Legal Adviser of the Year – Gilbert + Tobin
Business Services M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – Macquarie Group
Business Services M&A Legal Adviser of the Year – Ashurst
Business Services M&A Deal of the Year – Programmed Maintenance Services (Persol Holdings)
Consumer M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – KPMG
Consumer M&A Legal Adviser of the Year – Herbert Smith Freehills
Consumer M&A Deal of the Year – Darrell Lea (Quadrant Private Equity)
Energy Mining & Utilities M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – Lazard
Energy Mining & Utilities M&A Legal Adviser of the Year – Herbert Smith Freehills
Energy Mining & Utilities M&A Deal of the Year – Atlas Iron (Hancock Prospecting)
Inbound M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – Rothschild
Inbound M&A Legal Adviser of the Year – King & Wood Mallesons
Inbound M&A Deal of the Year – SIRTeX Medical (Consortium led by CDH Investments)
M&A Collaboration of the Year – Highbury Partnership
Private Equity Deal of the Year Mid-Cap – Energy Exemplar (Riverside Asia Partners)
Private Equity Deal of the Year Large-Cap – intelliHUB (Pacific Equity Partners)
M&A Legal Adviser of the Year – Allens
Boutique M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – Luminis Partners
M&A Financial Adviser of the Year – JP Morgan
M&A Deal of the Year – Westfield Corporation (Unibail-Rodamco)
The panel of judges included:
Professor Ian Ramsay, Harold Ford Professor of Commercial Law at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
Simon McKeon, Chancellor of Monash University; the 2011 Australian of the Year
Chris Hadley, Executive Chairman of Quadrant Private Equity
Steven Torresan, Managing Director of RCA
Tim Sims, Managing Director and Founder of Pacific Equity Partners
Brian Wilson, Former Chairman of Australian Foreign Investment Review Board
Professor Allan Fels, Former Chairman of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Simon Segal, Director, Australia of Acuris
Maggie Lu Yueyang, Bureau Chief – Mergermarket Australia of Acuris
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About Mergermarket:
Mergermarket is an independent Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) intelligence service with an unrivalled network of dedicated M&A journalists based in 65 locations across the Americas, Europe, Asia- Pacific, the Middle-East, and Africa. Unlike any other service of its kind, Mergermarket specialises in providing forward-looking origination and deal flow opportunities integrated with a comprehensive deals database – resulting in real revenues for clients.
About Acuris:
Acuris powers business growth for financial and professional services firms worldwide. Through events and subscription-based digital services, we provide unique, high-value content that helps our customers to make the best decisions based on the strongest evidence.
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