Allens has advised Macquarie Capital (Australia) Limited, Merrill Lynch Equities (Australia) Limited and Morgan Stanley Australia Securities Limited as the joint lead managers and underwriters of National Australia Bank's A$5.5 billion entitlement offer announced on 7 May 2015, the largest-ever entitlement offer by an ASX-listed company.
NAB is undertaking the 2-for-25 fully underwritten pro rata accelerated renounceable rights issue with retail rights trading at an offer price of $28.50 per share, representing approximately 8 per cent of NAB's existing issued capital.
The proceeds of the offer will provide a buffer for NAB's Common Equity Tier 1 ratio above its target range in anticipation of regulatory changes coming out of the recent report of the Financial System Inquiry, facilitate NAB's demerger and IPO of its UK business in 2015, and provide NAB with a peer-leading capital position.
The Allens team working for the joint lead managers on the deal was jointly led by partners Robert Pick and Julian Donnan, the Co-Heads of the Allens Capital Markets team, and included Senior Associate Anurag Verma.
Mr Pick said: 'It was terrific to again be working with the Macquarie, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley ECM deal teams on this important and strategic transaction for NAB.
'This deal is a continuation of our capital markets team's long history of working with the lead managers of NAB's equity funding deals over recent years, including NAB's multi-billion dollar placements on 2008 and 2009, retail hybrid offers in 2013 and 2015 and its underwritten DRP in 2014.'
Mr Donnan said: 'NAB's offer is the largest ever entitlement offer by an ASX-listed company, and was executed against the background of some significant strategic initiatives that were being announced by NAB. To assist the joint lead managers in executing a transaction of this size was a real pleasure.'
Allens' role on the NAB entitlement offer continues the firm's strong recent record of acting on the leading capital markets transactions in the Australian market. In recent times, the Allens capital markets team has advised Goldman Sachs as underwriter of Chevron's A$4.7 billion block trade of a 50 per cent stake in Caltex Australia (the largest ever block trade in the Australian market), Tabcorp on its A$236 million accelerated entitlement offer, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank on its successful CPS2 and CPS3 retail hybrid offers, GPT Group on its A$325 million placement, APA Group on its A$1.8 billion accelerated entitlement offer, DUET Group on its A$397 million accelerated entitlement offer and QBE on its A$810 million placement.
Allens legal team
Robert Pick (Partner – Melbourne), Julian Donnan (Partner – Sydney), Anurag Verma (Senior Associate – Sydney)
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Notes for editors.
Allens is a commercial law firm working throughout Australia and Asia. Through its integrated alliance with Linklaters it provides clients access to 40 offices in 28 countries around the world.