Grant Dunn

Grant is a partner in the corporate and commercial team.  He previously spent 6 years with the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a leading US law firm internationally recognised for its mergers and acquisitions and private equity practice.

Grant has broad experience in leveraged cross-border mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, joint ventures and consortium arrangements, stock exchange compliance, corporate governance matters, management buyouts, restructurings and securities offerings.  He has a particular focus on private equity and venture capital, having acted for some well known VC, LBO and investment funds such as HM Capital Partners, CSFB Private Equity, GE Capital, PAI Management, Blackstone Group, Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity and Capital Z Partners, on their limited partnership formation, fund raising, portfolio company acquisitions, financings, ongoing investment and exits in the TMT, biotechnology, food and beverage, healthcare, dairy, energy, real estate, retirement villages, forestry, infrastructure, insurance and financial services sectors.

Grant has structured and negotiated complex and innovative transactions for clients involving a wide spectrum of countries, including New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom and various European and Asian jurisdictions, and has worked on secondment with the London-based investment arm of Nomura International, a Japanese investment bank.

As well as transactional work Grant regularly advises on strategic commercial contracts such as supply/procurement arrangements, consulting and service agreements, contract manufacturing agreements, distributorships, sales and marketing agreements, franchise operations, IP licensing and technology transfer, research and development agreements, sponsorship agreements, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, and partnership agreements.

Recent work includes advising:

• A consortium of Goldman Sachs and Brookfield Asset Management in a competitive bid to buy a $1.3b commercial loan portfolio from Bank of Scotland International
• Pacific Inks on the sale of its worldwide ink printing and supplies business to DIC Corporation of Japan
• Intermediate Capital Group on the provision of mezzanine debt and equity finance to the Affinity Equity Partners led consortium acquisition of Tegel Foods from Pacific Equity Partners
• Royal Wolf Holdings, the Australian and New Zealand shipping container group, on its IPO and ASX listing
• An offshore investor on the purchase of Mt Potts Station
• NZ Generators on the sale of its generator hire business to Aggreko
• Greenstone Energy, a consortium of Infratil and the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, on the NZ$700m acquisition of Shell's downstream assets
• Satara Co-operative Group, a NZAX listed kiwifruit post harvest operator on its announced mergers with EastPack and Seeka Kiwifruit Industries
• The shareholders of retail food franchise company Foodco New Zealand on the sale of its rights to 36 Muffin Break concept stores to Foodco Group Pty
• HRL Morrison & Co on the fund formation of Public Infrastructure Partners LP, an investment fund dedicated to public private partnerships, and cornerstone investment commitment from the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation
• Equity Partners Asset Management Holdings on the sale of Equity Partners Asset Management (EPAM) to Pyne Gould Corporation.  EPAM was the manager of EPIC, the company with international infrastructure investments in Thames Water and Moto International Holdings
• A major shareholder and sub-underwriter of Pyne Gould Corporation’s fully underwritten NZ$237m rights issue
• Bank of America Corporation and Merrill Lynch on New Zealand aspects of their merger
• NZSX and ASX listed Genesis Research and Development Corporation on conversion of its rights to royalties to an interest in Real Time Genomics
• Altor Equity Partners and portfolio company Navico International on the acquisition of the Navman marine electronics division from Brunswick Corporation
• SPSE listed supermarket owner, RB Patel Group and its 3 largest shareholders on the partial takeover by Fijian Holdings, being the first ever takeover of a public company listed on the South Pacific Stock Exchange
• EnCoate on an investment by BioPacific Ventures
• Network security provider Esphion and its shareholders No 8 Ventures and TMT Ventures on the sale of its business to Allot Communications
• Prairie Capital on the acquisition of the Navman fleet management division from Brunswick Corporation
• Private equity bidders for Tegel Foods, Griffin’s biscuits, Nelson's Forests, the Carter Holt Forests and Yellow Pages
• AgResearch (in conjunction with Direct Capital) on the fund formation of BioPacific Ventures, a NZ$150m life sciences venture capital fund
• Rayonier on the formation of a consortium which purchased 94,300 hectares of timberland from Carter Holt Harvey for NZ$435m
• The board and shareholders of online auction house, Trade Me, on the NZ$750m sale of shares to Fairfax Holdings
• Esphion on its NZ$4m capital raising from TMT Ventures and No 8 Ventures
• Julie Christie on the sale of Touchdown Television to Dutch television production company Eyeworks
• AgResearch on the sale of animal vaccine company AgVax Developments to Intervet
• Lypanosys on its capital raising from iGlobe Treasury Management
• NZSX listed Richina Pacific on its US$25m acquisition of Shanghai Leather
• Methanex on various gas supply and pipeline access arrangements
• A major shareholder on the sale of Bridge Petroleum to Greymouth Petroleum.

Grant is a member of the NZ Venture Capital Association, the Australian Venture Capital Association and the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association.  He is also admitted to practise law in England & Wales and New South Wales, Australia.