M&A Competition Law:  The High Court determined the appropriate penalty for breaching the Commerce Act prohibition for an M&A transaction substantially lessening competition in a market (and the unusual feature of holding a vendor liable as accessory).  The Court found that certain actions of the Commerce Commission contributed to the breach.  The Court held the Commission staff did "hint that [applicant] might consider withdrawing".  The vendor "accessory" received no pecuniary fine ("novelty" being a factor in the decision).

Confidentiality Agreement v NZX Rules:  In injunction proceedings the High Court granted an injunction because disclosure would breach a confidentiality agreement.  The Court rejected various technical arguments seeking to limit the ordinary meaning of the word "information".  The court held that NZX Listing Rules did not override the confidentiality agreement as the three conditions (in LR 10.1.1(a)) required for overriding the confidential agreement were not met.  In particular the requirement that a reasonable person would expect the information to be kept confidential was established and rejected the argument that the Note to the relevant Listing Rule was prescriptive.

Voting Agreement:  The Panel have indicated it will question where a "voting agreement" (i.e. two shareholders agreeing to vote a particular way) is entered into means both "control the voting rights" of each other notwithstanding the agreed matters are not on "change of control" matters.  A formal meeting of the Panel to definitively decide the issue was not held after the parties agreed to terminate the voting commitment.

various forestry markets, in particular saw logs and pulp logs;

the market for the provision of log marshalling and stevedoring services at specific ports; and

coal mining and distribution market in the South Island.

the private equity consortium acquisition of Clear Channel Inc. (global deal);

Boeing's acquisition of Aviall, Inc. (global deal);

CVC's acquisition of DCA Group (trans-tasman deal);

Alinta/AGL infrastructure merger transaction (trans-tasman deal);

Linfox's acquisition of 50% of Task Transaction (and shareholders agreement) (New Zealand deal)

Cavotec's reverse takeover of Mooring Systems (New Zealand deal).