Bell Associates brings extensive Australia and New Zealand experience across M&A, acquisitions, post-acquisition integration, strategic investment and portfolio development spanning Defence, Power & Asset Management, Facilities Services, Civil and Specialist Construction, Indigenous Infrastructure, Rail, Transport and Roading.
Defence — Envista and AGIS
Power & Asset Management — Mitsubishi Hitachi Plant Services
Facilities & Integrated Services — post-acquisition integration and operating-model alignment of Spotless within Downer
Civil, Geotechnical & Specialist Construction — acquisition of a specialist ground engineering business
Indigenous Civil & Infrastructure Services — Maali Group
Rail — H.R.S. Limited (High Rail Systems)
Transport, Roading & Infrastructure Services — Excel Corporation and Road Markers
Experience spans the full acquisition lifecycle, from strategic assessment and transaction leadership through to financial and commercial execution, including investment modelling and valuation, commercial and financial due diligence, data-room analysis, transaction structuring, acquisition financing, lender engagement, governance and approvals, negotiation support, settlement, integration and post-acquisition performance management.
Financing capability includes determining sustainable debt capacity, transaction funding requirements and post-completion liquidity needs; preparation of integrated acquisition, cash-flow and sensitivity models; lender credit submissions; sources-and-uses analysis; security and priority structures; covenant headroom; working-capital requirements; refinancing pathways; and alignment of funding structures with the underlying acquisition strategy and business plan.
The acquisition of acquisition of a specialist ground engineering business involved transaction due diligence, preparation of the investment case and financial models, acquisition structuring, lender engagement and securing approximately $10 million of Commonwealth Bank acquisition finance to fund 100% of the transaction, followed by settlement and subsequent integration. A further $3 million Octet corporate facility was later established to provide additional acquisition and growth capacity.
The 100% acquisition and recapitalisation of Maali Group involved a substantially more complex, multi-stage special-situations strategy combining minority-equity investment, senior secured funding, working-capital support, creditor-position investment, successive restructuring processes and recapitalisation capital. The financing architecture progressively positioned the acquirer from minority investor to first-ranking secured creditor and ultimately 100% owner, demonstrating the integration of acquisition strategy, capital structure, security, creditor ranking, liquidity and control considerations within a single transaction strategy.
Earlier Downer transaction experience included acquisition, due diligence, financial oversight, systems integration and post-acquisition integration across Defence, Power & Asset Management, Rail and Transport businesses in Australia and New Zealand, including Envista, Mitsubishi Hitachi Plant Services, AGIS, H.R.S. Limited, Excel Corporation and Road Markers.