Andrew’s practice centres on a broad range of public and private mergers and acquisitions and securities market transactions and general corporate advisory work.

As part of his practice, Andrew has been involved in a number of high profile takeover disputes before the Takeovers Panel and has had regular dealings with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Securities Exchange and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Andrew is the co-author of a leading book on public company mergers, Schemes, Takeovers and Himalayan Peaks, which is now in its second edition.

Mergers and acquisitions

Andrew’s experience includes acting on the following M&A transactions:

• Peabody Energy in relation to its successful $5 billion joint bid with ArcelorMittal for Macarthur Coal, which is the largest coal takeover in Australian history.
• Acting for a syndicate of senior financiers in relation to the debt for-equity restructure of the I-MED Group.
• Growthpoint Properties Australia’s takeover bid for Rabinov Property Trust.
• Metcash’s proposed acquisition of Scanning Systems Australia.
• The MAC Services Group in relation to the proposed $651 million acquisition by Oil States International by way of scheme of arrangement.
• Eldorado Gold’s $3.5 billion approach to Andean Resources.
• Centennial Coal in relation to the A$2.5 billion recommended takeover bid by Banpu Public Company Limited.
• Metcash’s $215 million acquisition of the Franklins chain of supermarkets.
• Caliburn Partnership on its acquisition by Greenhill & Co., Inc.
• Metcash’s acquisition of control of Mitre 10 by way of scheme of arrangement.
• Eldorado Gold’s A$2.4 billion successful merger with Sino Gold. This transaction won the Mines and Money 2009 Deal of the Year.
• WorleyParsons’ successful takeover bid for Evans & Peck.
• Gloucester Coal on its proposed A$1.2 billion merger with Whitehaven Coal by way of reverse takeover and the concurrent hostile takeover bid by Noble Group for Gloucester Coal. This transaction won FinanceAsia’s ‘Best M&A Deal’ for 2009.
• Fairfax’s disposal of its Southern Star television production and distribution business to Endemol.
• WPP Group plc’s £1.2 billion successful takeover bid for Taylor Nelson Sofres plc.
• Imperial Tobacco Group PLC’s €15.2 billion takeover bid for Altadis SA and its €935 million follow-on takeover bid for Compania de Distribucion Integral Logista.
• Landsbanki’s €94 million acquisition of Kepler Equities SA from Lightyear Capital.
• FleetCor Technologies Inc on its acquisition of CH Jones Holdings Limited.
• Wagon’s £128 million acquisition of Oxford Automotive ApS.
• The £711 million merger between GWR Group plc and Capital Radio plc.
• Fortis’ €84 million acquisition of the Dryden Wealth Management business.
• Serco Group plc’s £235 million successful takeover bid for ITNET plc.
• Telstra on its A$333 million takeover of the IT service provider, KAZ Group.
• Sunov in relation to its A$345 million takeover bid for Novus Petroleum.
• Allied Domecq plc on its A$147 million takeover bid for Peter Lehmann Wines.
• RM Williams on its response to the takeover bid from the Strathig Partnership.
• Sirtex Medical in relation to the A$270 million bid for it by Cephalon Inc.
• Centro Properties Group on its A$1.4 billion hostile bid for AMP Shopping Centre.
• Burns Philp in relation to its hostile A$2.2 billion bid for Goodman Fielder.
• DownerEDI on its hostile takeover bid for Innovonics.
• AurionGold in its defence of Placer Dome’s hostile A$2 billion all share bid.
• Downer Group in relation to its unsolicited A$224 million scrip bid for Evans Deakin Industries and its subsequent divestments of non-core assets.
• MPH in its minority ‘take out’ takeover bid for home builder AVJennings.
• Commonwealth Bank in relation to its A$10.1 billion acquisition of Colonial.

Securities markets

Andrew has acted on the following securities markets transactions:

• Eldorado Gold in relation to its secondary listing on the ASX.
• Imperial Tobacco Group PLC in relation to its £4.9 billion rights issue.
• Wagon plc in relation to its refinancing and related rights issue.
• The founders of a special purpose acquisition company in connection with its proposed offering of shares and warrants on AIM.
• Landsbanki on its accelerated bookbuild offering in connection with its €237 million disposal of its 19.8% stake in D Carnegie & Co.
• Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and UBS Investment Bank in relation to the €5 billion IPO of the closed-ended investment company MW Tops Limited.
• WorleyParsons on its initial public offering.
• Westfield’s A$750 million offering of unsecured notes and call options.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Economics (with majors in Accounting and Economics) and a Bachelor of Laws (awarded with Honours), both from the University of Sydney.

He joined Freehills in 1998. Andrew spent four years (2004–2008) working in London with magic circle law firm, Allen & Overy LLP, before returning to Freehills in 2008.