Matthew is Head of Private Equity and a Practice Group Head in HWLE’s leading Corporate and Commercial Group.
Matthew is a leading M&A expert having completed over 300 deals in a career spanning practice in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. He is regarded by clients as “a strategic thinker and effective negotiator”, “highly responsive” and “technically excellent and commercially pragmatic”.
Matthew regularly advises on sale processes, acquisitions, share purchase agreements, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, Australian foreign investment rules, warranty and indemnity insurance, corporate restructures and general corporate and commercial matters.
Prior to joining HWLE, Matthew practised at global magic circle and silver circle firms.
Expertise
Experience
- Private equity funds Advised on tens of billions of dollars of private equity transactions acting for domestic and global funds, founders and portfolio companies. Some of these transactions are among the largest and most complex private treaty M&A deals in the years they were completed.
- Summit Partners Legal adviser to US private equity heavyweight, Summit Partners, on multiple investments in Australia. Deals include acquisitions of Culture Kings, Princess Polly, Petal & Pup, Quay Australia, IPO of a.k.a. Brands on the New York Stock Exchange and many other bolt-on, disposal and investment transactions.
- Nomura Advised major Japanese institution, Nomura, on its $300 million acquisition of a global IT services company from Australian private equity firm, The Growth Fund.
- GreenPoint Partners Advised a New York PE fund on its investment in Envizi and subsequent exit at an enterprise value of $290 million to IBM.
- Prysm Capital Advised US private equity fund, Prysm Capital, on its $350 million investment in Australian unicorn Pet Circle.
- Nature’s Care Advised on the trade sale of Nature’s Care, a leading vitamin and supplements business, to a Chinese private equity consortium by way of competitive sale process. The deal was one of the largest private equity transactions in Australia in the year it was completed and earned his team a nomination in the finals of the Australian Law Awards.
- Five Arrows Advised the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co. on all of its Australian M&A transactions.
- Maas Group Advised ASX-listed Maas Group Holdings Limited on its $85 million acquisition of shares and assets from Dandy Premix.