Scott Phillips

Scott Phillips

LLB, BCom (Accounting and Finance) (Otago)

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Scott has been practicing in corporate transactions in Australia since 2006 following two years at one of New Zealand’s leading commercial law firms. During that time he was fortunate to work on some of the Australian market’s largest and most interesting transactions, including multiple Australian ‘Deal of the Year’ winners.

His clients span many industries with a concentration in the real estate and funds management space, including many private and ASX listed REITs.

Scott joined Arnold Bloch Leibler in 2017 and was appointed as a partner effective July 2019.

Recommended for Mergers and Acquisitions in Australia

The Best Lawyers™ in Australia 2016-2020 editions

Practice focus

Scott’s experience spans a wide range of commercial transactions including:

private company sales and acquisitions, listed company takeovers, and schemes of arrangement
initial public offerings and secondary equity and hybrid raisings, and
shareholder activism and all aspects of corporate governance.

Experience

Scott has acted in a range of corporate transactions and commercial matters, including some of Australia’s largest and most interesting corporate transactions:

Private M&A

Acquisition of the Australian Community Media and printing business from Nine Entertainment by a consortium controlled by Antony Catalano and Thorney Investment Group
The sale of Dial-A-Dump Industries (DADI) by its shareholders to ASX listed Bingo Industries for $577.5 million
Acquisition of a stake in North Queensland Airports (owner of Cairns and Mackay Airports) by Perron Group and The Infrastructure Fund from Auckland International Airports
carsales.com in relation to its agreement to purchase the remaining 50.1 per cent of SKEncar.com, South Korea’s number one online auto classifieds business, for a consideration of KRW205 billion (approximately A$244 million). The transaction takes carsales’ ownership and control to 100 per cent, following its prior acquisition of a 49.9 per cent interest in the on-line assets of SK Encar in 2014, and
RARE Infrastructure Limited in relation to the sale of a majority stake in the privately owned infrastructure fund manager to Legg Mason.

Public/Listed M&A

Medical Properties Trust (MPT) on the acquisition of $1.25 billion of hospitals from Australian private hospital operator Healthscope contingent on and as a key pillar of Brookfield Capital Partners’ $4.5 billion scheme and takeover offer for ASX-listed Healthscope
Westfield Group in relation the demerger of Westfield Retail Trust and the subsequent re-merger and then demerger into Scentre Group and Westfield Corporation – the latter was the Australian Law Awards 2015 M&A ‘Deal of the Year’ and overall ‘Deal of the Year’
Australian Industrial REIT in the takeover by 360 Capital’s listed industrial fund, and
Australand in relation to the takeover by Frasers Centrepoint.

IPOs/Equity capital markets

Redcape Hotel Group in relation to its IPO and ASX listing
Charter Hall Long WALE REIT in relation to its establishment, IPO and ASX listing
Australian Industrial REIT in relation to its establishment, IPO and ASX listing and multiple secondary equity raisings
Medibank IPO and ASX listing: in relation to the Australian Law Awards 2015 Equity Market ‘Deal of the Year’
Fonterra Shareholders Fund in relation to the trans-Tasman IPO and dual NZX/ASX listing of the Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund – the Australian Law Awards 2013 Australasian Equity Market ‘Deal of the Year’
Altium in relation to all of Altium’s corporate transactions and major board governance matters along their journey from ASX minnow (market cap circa A$10 million) to ASX darling (market cap over A$1.5 billion), including numerous acquisitions and equity raisings and the departure of their managing director, founder and major shareholder in 2012, and
Trans-Tasman IPOs and dual NZX/ASX listings including the first IPO under the trans-Tasman mutual recognition regime and the New Zealand Government’s state owned asset sales via IPO of Mighty River Power and Genesis Energy.

Shareholder activism

Asia Pacific Data Centres (APDC) on the unitholder initiated proposal to wind-up APDC
Michael Kum, through his Singaporean investment vehicle, Halom Investments, in a public dispute with the board of marine service provider, MMA Offshore, and
Brickworks on its response to a shareholder campaign initiated by Perpetual and Carnegie & Co.