​Chapman Tripp acted on more Merger and Acquisition (M&A) deals than any other New Zealand law firm in 2018.

The firm was the highest ranked New Zealand law firm for overall M&A deal count across Mergermarket, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters' recently released global league tables.

Head of Chapman Tripp's corporate group Tim Tubman, said 2018 was another busy year for New Zealand's largest corporate and commercial group.

"While we advised on a similar number of transactions as in 2017, the overall value of deals we advised on more than doubled from US$2.15b to US$6.05b.

"In addition to more large deals in the market, cross-border transactions have increased with more European-based buyers in 2018," Tubman adds.

Tubman concludes that Chapman Tripp's reputation as the go-to firm for New Zealand's most significant M&A deals was cemented in the last quarter of 2018 having advised on:

  • the sale of AMP Life to Resolution Life Group for AU$3.3b
  • IKO's acquisition of Fletcher Building's Roof Tile Group
  • the merger between QMS and Mediaworks, and
  • the sale of Mercury's smart-metering business, Metrix, to intelliHUB Group for NZ$270m.