Barry is a partner in our corporate & commercial team focusing on mergers and acquisitions and on securities law.
Barry advises New Zealand and multi-national clients on mergers & acquisitions, corporate and securities law and general business strategies. Barry has advised on most of New Zealand's biggest deals in the last 20 years.
His experience includes advising the New Zealand Government on the sales of Telecom New Zealand and Bank of New Zealand and on the recapitalisation of Air New Zealand; Lloyds TSB Bank on the £2.25 billion sale of National Bank; Independent Newspapers on the NZ$1.19 billion sale of its publishing business to the Fairfax Group; International Paper on the NZ$1.6 billion sale of its Carter Holt Harvey interest; and Shell on its downstream business divestment.
Barry is recommended as a leading lawyer in corporate & commercial and mergers & acquisitions by Chambers Global, Asia Pacific Legal 500, IFLR 1000, PLC Which Lawyer?, The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers and a leading lawyer in capital markets by IFLR 1000, Legal Media Group Guide to the World’s Leading M&A Lawyers, and Legal Media Group Guide to the World’s Leading Corporate Governance Lawyers.
Barry is a former member of the New Zealand Stock Exchange's Market Surveillance Panel. He is also a former Chairman of Chapman Tripp's Board and a former Managing Partner of its Wellington office.
Recent experience
Barry has advised:
- Shell on its NZ$700m divestment of its New Zealand refining, distribution and marketing business and also on its NZ$700m divestment of its cornerstone stake in Fulton Hogan, a leading infrastructure contractor
- the merger parties on the merger of MARAC Finance, Canterbury Building Society and Southern Cross Building Society to form a substantial financial institution
- Telecom New Zealand on its High Court-approved NZ$1.1b capital return and share cancellation, and
- Agility Logistics Group on its AU$93m acquisition of Australian, New Zealand and Papua New Guinean logistics companies from Mainfreight.