Shannon Finch: Mallesons Stephen Jaques

The Fairfax deal is a great example of something we've really seeing a huge swell of in recent times, these low doc rights issues. The Fairfax deal was a pro rata rights issue, but we're also seeing institutional placements paired up with share purchase plans. You've got boards who are very conscious that they want to offer retail investors the opportunity to participate in these capital raisings. They won't necessarily take up that opportunity. But they want to make sure they've got the opportunity if they want to. They need speed to market to take advantage of capital raising windows and these new accelerated structures are allowing them to have the best of both worlds in some ways, to meet both objectives. So we are seeing a lot of those. Our M&A team includes our capital markets team, so we're really busy. There is a lot going on. 

Shannon Finch has just gone on maternity leave, but she says it's a shame to leave work during such an interesting period in M&A.