DLA Piper advises Ansarada on its AUD236 million sale

Global law firm DLA Piper is proud to have advised ASX-listed deal management solutions business Ansarada on all aspects of its proposed AUD236 million sale to Datasite.

Ansarada is a leading provider of software solutions to optimise deals and transaction management, as well as for board management, governance, risk and compliance and infrastructure procurement.

Datasite also provides SaaS technology to M&A professionals, and is owned by funds managed by CapVest. CapVest is a leading private equity firm, focused on identifying portfolio companies with a clear pathway to transformation through both organic and acquisition-led growth.

It is proposed that Datasite acquire 100% of the shares in Ansarada for AUD2.50 cash per share by way of a Scheme of Arrangement. The Scheme is conditional on Ansarada divesting its non-core ESG, GRC and Board products to Sam Riley (Ansarada’s CEO and Co-Founder), which will enable Datasite to only acquire Ansarada’s complementary deals and procure products under the Scheme and a logical fit with Datasite’s footprint.

“This significant take-private transaction demonstrates private equity demand for disruptive technologies remains strong,” said David Ryan, Corporate Partner, DLA Piper.

“The secured price is a great outcome for the founders in the current environment,” David said.

“We congratulate our client Ansarada on this milestone sale. It was a pleasure to work with them to navigate the complexities of this cross border and uniquely structured transaction, and we are pleased to have assisted them to unlock value for shareholders and to deliver an outstanding result for all involved,” said Elliott Cheung, Corporate Partner, DLA Piper.

“This is just another great example of DLA Piper’s market leading capability to deliver complex cross-border public M&A transactions, particularly in the tech sector. We worked alongside Moelis, who acted as financial advisor to Ansarada,” Elliott said.

The global cross-practice deal team was led by David Ryan (Partner, Corporate) and Elliott Cheung (Partner, Corporate), who were assisted by Madison Smith (Senior Associate, Corporate), Rohan Shukla (Senior Associate, Corporate), and Julia Krapeshlis (Solicitor, Corporate).

DLA Piper’s Corporate team, which has been recognised in the last few years as one of Australia’s leading deal teams, has advised many of Australia’s most complex and notable public M&A transactions in recent times (including some of the ASX’s global tech darlings). Its recent track record boasts the AUD1.05 billion sale of ASX-listed Nearmap to US private equity firm Thoma Bravo, Lionheart III Corp’s USD360 million acquisition of ASX-listed SMX (the first de-SPAC acquisition of an ASX-listed company), South Korean POSCO International on its AUD860 million acquisition of ASX-listed gas producer Senex Energy, ASX-listed Saracen Minerals on its AUD16 billion merger with ASX-listed Northern Star Resources, UK-based Nordgold on its AUD600 million takeover bid for ASX/TSX dual-listed Cardinal Resources, and ASX-listed US fintech Credible Labs on its AUD585 million merger with NASDAQ listed Fox Corporation.

For the 14th consecutive year, DLA Piper was the highest-ranked legal advisor in the world for M&A deal volume, according to Mergermarket's league tables.