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About Jason

Jason van Grieken is a partner in our corporate and commercial practice. He has a particular focus on mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, restructuring and distressed debt transactions.

Jason has significant experience in large-scale commercial transactions, acting for a range of public and private clients in Australia and overseas across various industry sectors.

Jason has advised on some of the Australian market’s largest and most complex transactions, including multiple ‘Deal of the Year’ winners and nominees in M&A, restructuring and capital markets. He is recognised by Chambers Asia Pacific as 'up and coming' in the area of Corporate and M&A law, Best Lawyers® International in the area of Commercial Law and Legal 500 in the area of Restructuring and insolvency.

Jason graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws with first class honours. In 2009, he joined Arnold Bloch Leibler as a graduate lawyer and was admitted to practice in 2010. Jason was appointed as a partner in July 2019.

Jason is a Director on the Board of the Sandro Demaio Foundation and also a member of the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia.

"Jason has robust commercial acumen and can identify potential future events and navigate them from a legal sense effortlessly."

Client quote

Practice focus

Jason’s practice focuses on the following areas:

  • public takeovers and schemes
  • private M&A
  • public and private capital raisings, including IPOs and secondary raisings
  • private equity and venture capital
  • restructuring, workouts and distressed debt transactions
  • asset management and investment funds
  • shareholder activism and board disputes
  • corporate governance, compliance and advisory, and
  • general commercial and corporate advice.

Experience

Jason’s extensive experience includes advising the following matters:

Public M&A transactions

  • John Kirby: $468m scheme of arrangement between Village Roadshow and BGH Capital
  • BGH Capital: on its bid to acquire Virgin Australia
  • Spicers: acquisition of Step-up Preference Securities in the SPS Trust by way of trust scheme
  • Solomon Lew: $2.2bn scheme of arrangement between Woolworths South Africa and David Jones, and the $2bn takeover for Country Road
  • Senior lenders of Redcape Hotel Group (York Capital Management, Varde Partners, Goldman Sachs): $278m takeover and recapitalisation of Redcape by way of scheme
  • Tishman Speyer Properties: US$338m privatisation ($1.9bn overall transaction value) of the ASX-listed Tishman Speyer Office Fund
  • Nufarm Limited: successful defence of proposed scheme by Sinochem Corporation
  • Breville Group: successful defence of a $300m takeover offer from GUD Holdings Limited, and
  • Takeovers Panel matters: acting for interested parties in multiple Takeovers Panel proceedings including in relation to Australian Whiskey Holdings, Cromwell Property Group, Benjamin Hornigold and Viento Group.

Private M&A transactions

  • Insurance Brands Australia: in relation to its $300m sale to ASX-listed general insurance business, Steadfast Group
  • Coverforce: in relation to its $411.5m sale to ASX-listed general insurance business, Steadfast Group
  • Tripp Group and Tekkorp Holdings: in relation to its launch of new Australian online wagering business, betr
  • Tripp Investments: in relation to its $120 million investment into ASX-listed wagering software and data services company, Betmakers
  • Clean Energy Finance Corporation: joint venture with Octopus Australia in relation to the development of two large-scale solar and battery storage projects in regional Victoria
  • Australian Way Pty Ltd: in relation to its joint venture with Lagardère Travel Retail
  • Assetic founders: sale of Assetic to Dude Solutions, the leading provider of cloud-based operations software
  • Tom Organic: 100% sale of Tom Organic to Asaleo Care
  • Arq Group management: $35 million management buy-out of ASX-listed Arq Group’s Enterprise Services Division, backed by Quadrant Private Equity
  • Mozo shareholders: 100% sale of Mozo to Future plc, a UK based global platform for specialist media
  • Zip: $50m acquisition of New Zealand-based PartPay Limited
  • SoftwareONE: Australian acquisitions of BNW Consulting and GorrilaStack
  • Trawalla Group: acquisition of the landmark Parliament Square site in Hobart, Tasmania
  • CrownBet founders: on a series of milestone transactions, including the $150m exit of Crown Resorts, the entry of new partner The Stars Group, the sale of a further 18% interest in CrownBet to The Stars Group and the acquisition by CrownBet of William Hill Australia for circa $300m
  • BlueScope Steel: the sale of its New Zealand iron sands business
  • Australian Sustainable Hardwoods: initial acquisition of the Heyfield timber mill, the largest hardwood sawmill in Australia, and subsequent sale to the Victorian State Government
  • IDP Education: $56m acquisition of Hotcourses, a UK-based digital marketing and online student recruitment company
  • RCG Corporation: $200m acquisition of Accent Group Limited, distributor and retailer of Vans, Skechers, Dr Martens and Timberland
  • The Middleby Corporation: acquisition of Goldstein Eswood, one of Australia’s leading commercial kitchen equipment manufacturers, and
  • Catchoftheday and Scoopon: sale of a minority stake to Tiger Global Management, James Packer’s CPH and Andrew Bassat.

Restructuring, workouts and distressed debt transactions

  • Metricon: in relation to its turnaround plans
  • Freedom Foods: its $265m recapitalisation by way of secured convertible notes and senior debt restructure
  • Automotive manufacturer: in connection with the restructure of its Australian network and implementation of a new business model
  • Tandem Group: advised the administrators of Tandem Group and the subsequent sale of assets
  • BGH Capital: on its bid to acquire Virgin Australia
  • Spicers Limited: in a capital restructuring involving a trust scheme and share issue
  • Oroton: advised the administrators of Oroton and in relation to the subsequent Deed of Company Arrangement
  • Axsesstoday: advised the administrators of Axsesstoday on the restructure and $260 million sale to an affiliate of private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management
  • Slater & Gordon: 
    • the settlement of multiple shareholder class actions by way of creditors’ scheme of arrangement
    • creditors’ scheme of arrangement in respect of the recapitalisation of $760m of secured debt, involving the reduction of debt, the separation of UK operations and the issuance of shares to the secured creditors
  • Nine Entertainment: acting for the senior lenders of Nine Entertainment (Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital Group) in relation to the $3.4bn restructure of Nine by way of scheme
  • Rathbone Wine Group: in relation it its restructure and recapitalisation, and
  • Senior lenders of Redcape Hotel Group (York Capital Management, Varde Partners, Goldman Sachs): $278m takeover and recapitalisation of Redcape by way of scheme.

Public equity capital transactions

  • Noumi: in relation to its $27 million capital raising by way of secured convertible notes
  • Freedom Foods: $265m recapitalisation by way of secured convertible notes
  • Kogan:
    • $100 million placement and SPP
    • $170m IPO and listing on the ASX
  • Thorney Technologies:
    • $37m multi-tranche placements and non-renounceable entitlement offer
    • $42.5m recapitalisation and back-door listing on the ASX
    • $65m recapitalisation of ASX-listed Wentworth Holdings and the establishment of Thorney Opportunities Limited
  • RCG Corporation: $135m placement and SPP
  • Catapult Group: $66m IPO and listing on the ASX
  • Hotel Property Investments: $279m IPO and listing on the ASX
  • Thorney Group: $65m recapitalisation of ASX-listed Wentworth Holdings and the establishment of Thorney Opportunities Limited
  • Nufarm Limited: $251m AREO and $611m strategic investment by Sumitomo Chemical Company
  • Seek Limited: $100m placement, SPP and top-up offer
  • Slater & Gordon: $40m placement and SPP
  • Carsales: $800m IPO and listing on the ASX, and
  • Neuren Pharmaceuticals: $20 million capital raising.

Private equity, venture capital and other funds management

  • acting for private equity and venture capital in relation to investments, fund establishment and structuring, including acting for Jungle Capital, Carbine Funds Management, CEFC, BGH, The Riverside Company, Hume Partners, Square Peg Capital, AirTree Ventures, FiveV and Trawalla Capital,
  • acting for equity, property and debt fund managers in relation to investment, fund establishment and structuring, including ARC, LongView, Capital H, Bayley Stuart and Merewether Capital.
  • acting for start-ups in relation to various funding rounds and commercial matters, including Superhero, Inquisitive Learning, Guardian, Growing Data, Systema AI, Shop Bonny, TechLend, Stuff, RR Medical, Polus Tech and Cannatrek.

Shareholder activism

  • Merlon Capital Partners: its activism campaign against AMP Limited in relation to AMP's $3.3bn divestment of its life insurance business
  • Solomon Lew: the $2.2bn scheme of arrangement between Woolworths South Africa and David Jones, and the $2bn takeover for Country Road, and
  • Various clients in relation to private companies.

Awards & recognition

Jason is recognised as a leading lawyer by various international guides to lawyers and law firms:

  • Chambers Asia Pacific: corporate and M&A,
  • Best Lawyers® International: commercial law, and
  • Legal 500: restructuring & insolvency and corporate and M&A.

Contact Jason van Grieken

Recognition & publications

Take a look at Insights & News articles referencing Jason van Grieken