Rhys is a transactional and corporate advisory lawyer specialising in corporate and commercial law with an emphasis on public company takeovers and schemes, private M&A and private equity, joint ventures, reconstructions and capital raisings (including IPOs, hybrid security offerings and secondary equity and debt capital raisings).
Rhys also regularly provides general corporate advisory support to companies, mutuals and funds, with a particular emphasis on corporate governance, directors' duties and securities law.
Rhys is a trusted adviser to a number of listed and unlisted businesses and has experience across a range of industry sectors including financial services, energy and resources, infrastructure, agribusiness, retail and gaming. He is a member of the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia.
Rhys’ work highlights include:
- The Star Entertainment Group: $800m underwritten accelerated pro-rata non-renounceable entitlement offer and institutional placement to repay debt and increase liquidity following the regulatory reviews in NSW and Qld
- Greater Bank: merger with Newcastle Permanent Building Society by way of statutory transfer to create Newcastle Greater Mutual Group
- Mercer: merger of BT’s Personal and Corporate superannuation funds into the Mercer Super Trust via a successor fund transfer and related acquisition of the Advance Asset Management business from Westpac
- Aurizon: acquisition of One Rail Australia and dual track process (via trade sale and proposed demerger) to divest East Coast Rail
- QSuper: merger via successor fund transfer with Sunsuper to create Australian Retirement Trust – the largest super fund merger in Australian history
- Bank of Queensland: acquisition of ME Bank and associated $1.35bn equity capital raising
- HCF: health fund merger with rt Health – the first merger of its kind between not-for-profit mutual private health insurers in Australia
- Suncorp: divestment of its Australian wealth business to LGIAsuper
- Aurizon: structural separation of above and below-rail businesses via an internal reorganisation, debt restructure and $2.88bn capital reduction
- Super Retail Group: acquisition of Macpac from CHAMP Ventures and acquisition of Rebel Group from Archer Capital and associated $334m equity capital raising
- The Star Entertainment Group: strategic alliance with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium and $500m equity placement
- Auswide Bank: demutualisation and acquisition via a cash and scrip scheme of arrangement of Your Credit Union (the first merger between a listed bank and a mutual ADI in over a decade in Australia)
- Hybrid (Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2) capital raisings for Suncorp and Bank of Queensland
- IPOs for Aurizon, National Storage REIT and GARDA Diversified Property Fund
