Schemes Takeovers and Himalayan Peaks

31 January 2008

Schemes of arrangement have been used successfully to achieve some of Australia's largest corporate mergers, yet they remain controversial. Schemes, Takeovers and Himalayan Peaks, co-written by Freehills partner Tony Damian, explores the use of schemes of arrangement to effect change of control transactions. It is the inaugural publication of the Ross Parsons Centre of Commercial, Corporate and Taxation Law at Sydney University. Schemes, Takeovers and Himalayan Peaks traces the legislative response to the policy concerns and the numerous legal challenges to the use of schemes since they were first used in Australia in the late 1970s. It also explores the useful roles schemes play in the modern corporate landscape and the criticisms directed at them.

A number of wide-ranging reforms to the scheme procedure are also proposed. These reforms would ensure that schemes are supported appropriately in future.

Tony Damian specialises in mergers and acquisitions and has acted on some of Australia's major schemes of arrangement. These include the innovative Cashcard/First Data scheme, Telstra's acquisition of KAZ Group, acting for Commonwealth Bank of Australia entities in relation to their successful contest with rival bidder Mirvac for ownership of Colonial First State Property Trust Group, the Goldfields Limited/Delta Gold merger and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's $10.1 billion acquisition of Colonial Limited.

Other takeover bids worked on include Burns Philp's $2.3 billion leveraged acquisition of Goodman Fielder, Investa Property Group's unsolicited $1.5 billion cash and scrip takeover bid for Principal Office Fund, Centro Properties Group's unsolicited bid for AMP Shopping Centre Trust, AurionGold in its response to Placer Dome's $2 billion hostile scrip takeover bid and Downer Group's successful bid for Evans Deakin Industries.

To purchase a copy of Schemes, Takeovers and Himalayan Peaks download the order form here.

To read the order form, you will need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Acrobat Reader download it from the Adobe site.

For more information please contact