Herbert Smith Freehills has advised SurfStitch Group Limited (SurfStitch) on its acquisitions of Magicseaweed Limited and Rollingyouth Pty Limited (which publishes Stab Magazine), announced today (the Acquisitions). The Acquisitions will be funded by a A$37.5 million institutional placement of shares, on which Herbert Smith Freehills also advised.
According to SurfStitch, Magicseaweed is the world’s leading online surf forecaster and user-generated surf content network and Stab Magazine is the world’s leading online surf publishing and content provider.
The Acquisitions will form part of a newly formed content network for the SurfStitch group and will add to SurfStitch’s growing subscriber base, providing cross-promotional opportunities.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team advising on the Acquisitions was led by Partners Bradley Russell in Sydney and Ben Ward in London, assisted by solicitor Julie Comninos and graduate Matthew Gallagher in Sydney and associates Harriet Forrest and Lerryn Martin in London. The team has worked closely with SurfStitch CFO Karen Birner and the team at SurfStitch.
Bradley Russell said “We are delighted to have been able to support SurfStitch in its continued growth as a global action sports business, as it diversifies into surf content and online publishing. Herbert Smith Freehills has a long-standing relationship with SurfStitch. Our global network has been able to work with SurfStitch in a number of jurisdictions.”
Part of the proceeds from the placement and a concurrently announced A$5 million share purchase plan will be used to fund the Acquisitions, with the balance of the proceeds to provide SurfStitch with the flexibility to pursue further strategic growth initiatives including the continued buildout of SurfStitch’s content strategy, working capital and general corporate purposes. The institutional placement is fully underwritten by J.P. Morgan Australia Limited, which was advised by Baker & McKenzie.
Partner Philip Hart and senior associate Lucy Hall advised SurfStitch on the institutional placement.
Philip Hart said: “We are pleased to have worked with the SurfStitch team on this important transaction, having also recently acted on their initial public offering and listing on ASX.”
Supporting Information
In addition to advising SurfStitch on its A$214 million IPO in December 2014, Herbert Smith Freehills also acted for SurfStitch on its pre-IPO acquisition of the SurfStitch Australia and SurfStitch Europe businesses and Billabong International’s North American online catalogue business, Swell.com, in August 2014, as well as its acquisition of the European online business Surfdome in November 2014.
Herbert Smith Freehills’ capital markets team is Australia’s number one equity capital markets team by deal count and deal volume (Bloomberg 2014 – IPO Issuer Advisors and Thomson Reuters 2014 – Equity & equity-related, Issuer Advisors). We have recently acted for oOh!Media on its A$365.5 million IPO, SurfStitch on its A$214 million IPO, the Commonwealth of Australia on the A$5.9 billion Medibank Private IPO, Healthscope on its A$3.6 billion IPO, Speedcast on its US$263 million IPO, Genworth Financial on Genworth Australia’s A$1.6 billion IPO, Japara Healthcare Limited on its A$525 million IPO, SG Fleet on its A$454.2 million IPO, PACT Group on its A$1.12 billion IPO, Industria REIT on its A$250 million IPO, iBuy on its A$115 million IPO, McAleese Group on its A$166 million IPO, for the joint lead managers on Spotless Group’s A$1.9 billion IPO, Veda’s A$1.05 billion IPO and OzForex Group’s A$439 million IPO, for the sole lead manager on National Storage REIT’s A$240 million IPO, for the joint lead managers on iSelect’s A$215 million IPO and for Calibre Group on its A$477 million IPO.
