Herbert Smith Freehills advising on Wellard Limited IPO

Herbert Smith Freehills is advising UBS and Deutsche Bank as joint lead managers and underwriters on the initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) of Wellard Limited (Wellard).

Wellard is an integrated agribusiness that connects primary producers of cattle, sheep and other livestock to customers globally through a vertically integrated supply chain. Wellard sources livestock globally where production is surplus to domestic requirements (e.g. Australia, Brazil and Uruguay) and sells livestock and meat to customers in markets where demand exceeds local production (e.g. China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Middle East and Turkey).

Wellard is scheduled to list on the ASX on 10 December 2015 on a conditional and deferred settlement basis. The offer consists of a broker firm offer, institutional offer and priority offer and is being conducted to provide Wellard with the financial flexibility to execute its identified growth initiatives and longer-term strategy and enable Wellard to achieve other key objectives as outlined in the prospectus. Wellard’s indicative market capitalisation is A$556 million, based on the offer price of A$1.39 per share.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by partners Philip Hart and Philippa Stone, supported by solicitors Mulin Zang and Tom Hambrett.

Philip Hart said, "We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to advise the joint lead managers as part of another successful IPO, and we wish Wellard well for the continued growth of their business."

Corrs Chambers Westgarth is advising Wellard.

Herbert Smith Freehills’ capital markets team has also recently acted for:

• Aventus Retail Property Fund on its A$686.5 million initial public offering;
• Pepper Group Limited on its A$471 million initial public offering;
• oOh!media Limited on its A$289.3 million initial public offering;
• the Commonwealth of Australia on the A$5.9 billion Medibank Private initial public offering; and
• Healthscope Limited on its A$3.6 billion initial public offering.