Qualifications
BA (Hons), LLB (Hons), Victoria University of Wellington
Admitted
2006, New Zealand
Rachel specialises in corporate and securities law with particular expertise in equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate governance.
With a reputation for ensuring complex and involved processes run smoothly, Rachel has acted on many of New Zealand's most significant recent initial public offerings (IPOs), NZX listings and other equity capital markets transactions. She has also worked on a range of public and private M&A transactions.
Rachel is a current member of the Takeovers Panel, the independent Crown entity which regulates New Zealand's takeovers market and the NZ Markets Disciplinary Tribunal, the independent regulatory body that regulates conduct by NZX listed issuers and NZX market participants. Rachel is also a founding member of the NZX Corporate Governance Institute, established by NZX to assist in delivering corporate governance policy settings for NZX listed issuers.
Rachel is recognised as a Highly Regarded Women Leader by IFLR1000 2023, as a Leading Lawyer by Chambers Asia Pacific 2024 and Chambers Global 2020 and as a Leading Individual by Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2024. She also featured in NZ Lawyer's Elite Women List 2023.
She is also one of two exclusively recognised Lawyers for ‘Capital Markets: Equity in New Zealand’ in IFLR’s Asia Future Leaders 2021 and recognised as a Young Influencer on the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers 2021 list.
Recent highlights
- Acting for the consortium of Northleaf Capital and InfraRed Capital Partners on the $1.7b acquisition of Vodafone New Zealand’s passive mobile network to create New Zealand’s largest independent tower company.
- Acting for NZX and ASX listed Heartland Group Holdings on its $200 million placement and SPP.
- Advising on the establishment of, and $121m capital raising by, the Centuria NZ Healthcare Property Fund.
- Advising specialist international distribution and services group Bunzl plc on its acquisitions of Obex Medical Holdings, Universal Specialities and Toomac Holdings.
- Acting on all aspects of the My Food Bag IPO and NZX and ASX listings, with an implied post IPO market capitalisation of $449m.
- Acting for Deutsche Craigs and Goldman Sachs as joint lead managers of the $234m Napier Port IPO.
- Acting for Fonterra on the sale of its iconic ice cream business, Tip Top, to global ice cream manufacturer Froneri for $380m.
- Assisting Mercury on the sale of its smart-metering business, Metrix, to intelliHUB Group for $270m.
Affiliations
- NZ Markets Disciplinary Tribunal (one of 22 members).
- NZX Corporate Governance Institute (one of 10 members).
- NZ Takeovers Panel (one of 11 members).
- Sole legal representative on FMA and NZX convened Capital Markets 2029 Steering Committee.
- INFINZ (Cert).
- Listed Companies Association.
