26 April 20224 minute read

DLA Piper advises Accel-KKR and Seequent on International Deal of the Year

Buyouts Magazine has named Accel-KKR’s sale of New Zealand-based Seequent the International Deal of the Year in its annual awards. This is the first time a New Zealand transaction has won the award since its inception.

DLA Piper New Zealand’s M&A team, led by Partner, Reuben Woods, advised Accel-KKR and its portfolio company, Seequent Holdings Limited, on the sale to Bentley Systems for ~NZD 1.5 billion (USD 1.05 billion). The acquisition was structured as a sale of 100% of the share capital of Seequent Holdings Limited for NZD 1.25 billion (USD 900 million) in cash and the balance (~USD 150 million) in Class B stock in Bentley Systems.

Reuben says, "Congratulations to Tom, Dean, Andy and the team at Accel-KKR and to the Seequent team!  It’s great to see fantastic Kiwi companies getting turbo-charged by fantastic PE firms and receiving global recognition for the outcomes. The quality of New Zealand tech businesses and talent is clearly no longer a secret!”

Dean Jacobson, Managing Director of Accel-KKR says, "Reuben and the entire DLA Piper team have been invaluable partners throughout our investment in Seequent. DLA Piper’s global footprint, coupled with technically-excellent and commercially-astute advice, helped make this large, complex, multi-jurisdictional process go very smoothly. They have been great advisors and we look forward to working with them in the future."

Alongside Reuben, the DLA Piper team included New Zealand partners Rachel Taylor, David Johnston, Nick Valentine and Mark Williamson. US partner Joey Silver led the DLA Piper US team, with assistance from Andrew Ledbetter and Drew Young, and David Ryan and Kelly Morrison in Australia led the ASX aspects of the process.

Buyouts is the leading authority in US mid- market private equity industry intelligence, data and trend analysis. Its annual awards celebrate the best deals over six categories including Large Market, Small Market, Turnarounds, Secondaries, International and overall Deal of the Year.

The Buyout criteria for picking winners include familiar metrics such as multiples on invested capital, internal rates of return, EBITDA, employee retention and expansion, portfolio company growth and organic growth of companies plus the investment rationale and how the deals were executed.

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