Freehills has advised Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) on its A$373 million acquisition of Count Financial Limited (ASX: COU), approved by the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 28 November 2011.
The acquisition was implemented by way of scheme of arrangement, with 99.38% of Count’s shareholder votes and 96.31% of Count’s optionholder votes cast in favour of the scheme. Count shareholders are able to elect to receive consideration for their Count shares wholly in cash or in CBA Shares.
The acquisition is expected to increase CBA’s number of advisers from approximately 1,220 to more than 1,850, ranking it second by total number of advisers nationally.
The Freehills team was led by M&A partner Tony Damian, supported by senior associates Nicole Underhill and Clayton James and solicitors Ben Jones and Alison Crocker, working closely with Henry Broekhuijse and Melissa Jones from CBA Legal Services.
The core team was assisted by various industry leaders from a number of Freehills offices and practice groups, including competition and litigation.
Freehills partner Tony Damian said ‘We are delighted to have worked closely with Commonwealth Bank to implement this significant transaction’.
Freehills advised CBA on all aspects of the transaction, with Goldman Sachs acting as CBA’s financial adviser.
Tony has previously advised Commonwealth Bank on various M&A deals, including its A$2.1 billion acquisition of BankWest and its A$10.1 billion acquisition of Colonial Limited.
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