Baker McKenzie acted for Platinum Equity in its acquisition of the OfficeMax Australia and New Zealand from Office Depot.
The US private equity outfit is consolidating businesses in the Australasian office-supplies space, an industry worth $10bn annually in Australia alone. It announced it is buying Staples Australia and New Zealand last month from US parent Staples Inc. in a deal the global law firm also advised Platinum Equity on.
Subject to regulatory approval in each country, the deal is expected to close within the next few months. Financial details of Platinum Equity’s acquisitions of Staples and of OfficeMax in Australasia were not disclosed.
The Baker McKenzie team was led by partner and head of equity capital markets, Craig Andrade.
Platinum Equity, a global private equity firm that specialises in business operations, is investing its global buyout fund, Fund IV, which raised US$6.5bn in capital in mid-March. Baker McKenzie has a long history with Platinum Equity’s buyouts in Australia, as it has acted for the private equity firm in its majority stake acquisition in Sensis from Telstra in 2014.
Baker McKenzie also recently advised Chow Tai Fook on its $4bn purchase of Alinta, Afterpay on its $600mn merger with Touchcorp, Billabong on its $60mn sale of Tiger Lilly to Crescent Capital Partners, and Aurrum and the Home Investment Consortium on their $800mn acquisition of the Masters Hardware business from a Woolworths-Lowes joint venture.
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