Value: $445 million.

Deal: National law firm Mills Oakley has advised New Zealand-based Aroa Biosurgery Limited on its initial public offering and listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. 

Aroa Biosurgery is a soft-tissue regeneration company that develops, manufactures, sells and distributes medical and surgical products to improve healing in complex wounds and soft tissue reconstruction.

Area: Capital markets.

Key players: The Mills Oakley team was led by corporate partner Iain Laughland, assisted by associate Rachel Mimmo, senior associate Emma Harnett, lawyer Jean Yip and graduate lawyer Cleo Ioannou.

Chapman Tripp acted as New Zealand counsel to the company.

Deal Significance: The IPO consisted of both a primary issue of shares and a sell-down by existing shareholders at $0.75 per share to raise a total of $45 million, giving the company a market capitalisation of $225 million on listing. 

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The IPO was heavily supported by both institutional investors and clients of the joint lead managers, Wilsons Corporate Finance Limited and Bell Potter Securities Limited.

According to the ASX the Aroa IPO and listing were the largest on the ASX this year to date and the largest by a New Zealand company since 2017. 

By the close of trading on the first day on ASX, Aroa’s shares had experienced a 90 per cent increase in value giving the company a market capitalisation of approximately $445 million. 

“It was a privilege to support the Aroa board, founder Brian Ward, and other members of the Aroa management team on such a significant transaction for the company,” Mr Laughland said on the firm’s involvement in the transaction.

“The Aroa team [has] built a successful business over the last 10 years and we wish them ongoing success as they start their journey as a listed company and continue to grow. The company has a number of existing and new products based on its proprietary technology that will hopefully continue to [help unlock] regenerative healing at an affordable cost for patients throughout the world,” he said.

The transaction involved a number of challenging aspects including a pre-IPO capital raising, obtaining all necessary shareholder approvals from Aroa’s significant existing shareholder base and a capital restructure, in addition to advising on all aspects of the IPO and ASX listing, all while adjusting to the disruption caused by the ongoing global pandemic. 

The IPO completed a busy quarter according to the Mills Oakley equity capital markets team with the team also advising on a number of capital raisings for both Australian and New Zealand-based ASX-listed companies throughout the COVID-19 lockdown period.