Piper Alderman seals deal for O’Driscoll Coaches

Piper Alderman has advised Erica and Peter O’Driscoll on their sale of O’Driscoll Coaches Derwent Valley Link to national transport service company Kinetic, expanding the latter’s presence in the south-east of Tasmania.

O’Driscoll Coaches was established in 2006 by the O’Driscolls. The family-owned business operated 10 government-contracted services, including school bus and general access services, as well as 33 buses across 3 depots between Hobart and the Derwent Valley. It also employed 42 Tasmanians, who under the share sale transaction will be allowed to continue their employment with Kinetic.

Piper Alderman partner and Australian transport industry expert Maria Capati led the team advising the O’Driscolls on the share sale of their business to Kinetic. Capati worked with senior associate Kara Pennisi and lawyer Grace Hooper for the job.

The O’Driscolls described their confidence in Capati’s competence throughout the transaction.

“I had no idea how much was involved in selling the type of business we had – especially how we’d structured it,” the O’Driscolls said. “Maria and her team at Piper Alderman helped conduct the transaction with great knowledge, dogged persistence, and most of all, compassion for us as her clients. Maria and her team were only ever a phone call away and our calls were always answered – no matter the time of day or night. They were able to liaise professionally and quickly with our financial accounting team and together, they achieved the best possible result for our family, which seemed unlikely at the start of negotiations.”

The O’Driscolls previously worked with Capati and said that she had represented and advised the O’Driscoll Coaches “promptly and professionally” over the course of ten years. “So it was an easy choice when it came time to sell our cherished family business to a large national company that we engage Maria and Piper Alderman,” they said.

Capati said she had mixed feelings upon hearing that the O’Driscolls were selling O’Driscoll Coaches to Kinetic. She said: “It was wonderful to be approached by Peter to act for his family in this matter.  Peter Dwyer and I have known Peter and Erica for a long time through our work for the Tasmanian Bus Association over the years. 

“When Peter called me to let me know that he and his family were selling and that he would like me to act for them, I felt a mixture of sadness that another family operator was exiting the Tasmanian bus industry, but I was also touched that he chose me to lead his family and his other advisers in this transaction.”

The acquisition strengthens Kinetic’s capacity as a key transport delivery partner for the Tasmanian government, with more than 250 buses in its fleet and over 270 people currently employed.