Allens tops mid-year M&A league tables

Allens has maintained its position as a leading M&A legal adviser in the Australian market, topping the mid-year M&A league tables for deal value. The firm has advised on deals valued at more than $45 billion over the first half of 2022.  

Allens ranked first for deal value in the announced Australasian M&A league tables in both the Mergermarket and Bloomberg rankings, and second in the Refinitiv rankings. The firm also topped Mergermarket's rankings for announced private equity buyout deals in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan).

'It has been an extraordinarily busy first half for M&A deal activity, particularly in Australia and New Zealand with more than $140 billion worth of deals announced. The strong momentum from 2021 certainly continued into 2022. Whilst activity levels will likely moderate over the remainder of the year as the market adjusts to higher interest rates and global inflationary pressures, we expect that the Australasian M&A market will continue to perform strongly relative to global markets,' said Head of Corporate Tom Story. 

'We are pleased in particular to have been able to work with our private capital clients to navigate an increasingly complex deal market. Despite global headwinds, we are still seeing strong appetite from private equity and infrastructure sponsor clients for high quality Australian assets, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, technology and digital infrastructure,' said co-Head of PE Mark Malinas.

Allens advised on many of Australia's largest and most complex M&A deals in the first half of 2022, including:

• Sydney Airport on its $32 billion acquisition by a consortium led by GIP and IFM Investors
• the KKR consortium in relation to its $28 billion proposal to acquire Ramsay Health Care
• HRL Morrison & Co and Brookfield on their $3.7 billion acquisition of Uniti Group
• AustralianSuper and Singtel in relation to their $3.58 billion acquisition of Axicom
• Blackstone on its $1.5 billion sale of La Trobe Financial to Brookfield
• Pacific Equity Partners on its $1.167 billion sale of Lifehealthcare to EBOS
• TPG Telecom on its $950 million sale of its mobile tower and rooftop infrastructure assets to OMERS Infrastructure Management
• AUB Group on its $880 million proposed acquisition of Tysers