King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has advised Affinity Equity Partners on its $640 million acquisition of Nine Live from Nine Entertainment Co.

The Nine Live business covers Australia and New Zealand and includes live events ticketing (Ticketek), events promotion, data & analytics and software licensing.

KWM acted as lead counsel for Affinity Equity Partners advising on all Australian legal aspects of the purchase including all M&A aspects and the acquisition financing. Buddle Findlay acted as New Zealand legal counsel.

“We are delighted to have worked with Affinity on this transaction following our recent work with them on their Velocity Frequent Flyer investment. Nine Live has a long history in Australia, having established its live events ticketing business over 35 years ago. It now occupies a unique position in the Australian live entertainment landscape.” said KWM Partner Mark McNamara.

The core KWM team on the project were Partners Mark McNamara, Yuen-Yee Cho, Ros Anderson and Scott Bouvier. They were assisted by Alex Elser, Elizabeth Hundt Russell, Josh Chalkley, Dan Flanagan, Michael Spurritt and Laura Edwards.