Herbert Smith Freehills advised Pact Group Holdings Ltd on its initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange. The offer of over 170 million shares raised AUD$649 million.
The offering, which occurred on 17 December 2013, had Credit Suisse and Macquarie Capital as joint lead managers and Deutsche Bank as a co-manager, and included an offering to institutional investors in the United States.
Pact is a manufacturer of a wide range of packaging products, with operations in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Pact has 62 manufacturing plants, over 4,200 customers and produces 22,000 stock keeping units and approximately 8 billion units annually, generating pro forma forecast sales revenue of AUD$1,197 million for FY2014.
This offer was particularly complex as it was undertaken in conjunction with a corporate reorganisation including acquisitions of a number of Asian business interests associated with Pact’s Non-Executive Chairman, Mr Raphael Geminder.
Herbert Smith Freehills’ global offices assisted Pact with the offer. The project was led by Melbourne-based partner Michael Ziegelaar, senior associates Cecilia Mehl and Lynda Tully, and solicitor Andrew Earle. Singapore-based partner Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan and associates Eric Victorson and Jenny Qi provided US federal securities law advice. Bangkok-based partner Chinnawat Thongpakdee and senior associate Pipat Wutichaisaranon also provided Thai law advice with respect to Pact's operations in Thailand.
In addition, associated Indonesian firm, Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung led by partner Kristo Molina with associate Mia Sari, assisted Pact in the negotiation of a memorandum of understanding which gave Pact the exclusive opportunity to negotiate to acquire a leading supplier of rigid plastics packaging and related products and services in Indonesia.
The offering demonstrates the strength of the firm's integrated global offices and its Australian and US capital markets platform.
“Pact’s offering is an excellent example of Herbert Smith Freehills’ ability to provide our clients with effective solutions to truly complex deals through an integrated one-stop global firm. We are very pleased to have been involved in the largest IPO in Australia for 2013,” said Michael Ziegelaar.
Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan commented: "We are delighted to have acted together with our Melbourne colleagues for Pact on this high profile transaction. We look forward to continuing to deliver seamless cross-border securities advice to our Australian capital markets clients."
