Legal
Issue No. 41 - June/July 2008
Ride On! buyout is child’s play
by Gerry Cawson
Law firm, Minter Ellison is very pleased with the result of a recent management buy-out that exercised its “full skill set” on legal and financial fronts.
Minter Ellison’s Adelaide office conducted the sale and management buy-out by ANZ Capital for Ride On! Entertainment, a family business which operates more than 2000 children’s amusement rides in more than 650 locations in Australia and overseas.
Ride On! had modest beginnings as a coin-operated pool table supplier but now operates licensed rides of popular children’s characters such as The Wiggles, Hi-5, Thomas & Friends and Spider-Man in major shopping centres around the world.
With operations in Australia, NZ, the UK, Malaysia and Singapore, Ride On! chose to keep its legal dealings local, looking to Minter Ellison’s corporate team to deliver a significant premium on its price expectations and a smooth ride in the sale process.
“Ride On! Entertainment prides itself on its professional, innovative and ‘no compromise’ approach to client service and we needed a law firm that was on the same page as us,” says Ride On! MD, Ian Sargent.
“Minter Ellison exceeded all our expectations. We were thrilled they could deliver ahead of schedule – 21 days before the proposed completion date set out in the information memorandum.”
Led by Adelaide’s Head of Private Equity, Gerry Cawson, the Minter Ellison team advised on all aspects of the sale process including developing an information memorandum, data room, vendor due diligence and
tax advice.
Gerry’s team also assisted in a review of indicative offers, negotiating commercial terms and documents and transaction documents including a share sale agreement, subscription agreement and shareholders agreement.
“Our experience from running many of these deals before allowed us to run a process that avoided surprises for Ride On! and ANZ,” Gerry says.
Gerry says the legal hurdles were ...
