Deal profile | Gadens advises Lark Distilling Co. on acquisition of Pontville Distillery and Estate and associated capital raising

Gadens is pleased to have advised Lark Distilling Co. Limited (Lark) (ASX: LRK), Australia’s leading distiller of single malt whisky, on its acquisition of Kernke Family Shene Estate Pty Ltd, the owner of the Pontville Distillery and Estate – a transaction which establishes Lark as a producer of significant scale, building on its foundation as the world’s most innovative distiller.

The iconic estate and distillery are located 30 minutes north of Hobart at Pontville and includes 40 acres of land and buildings, a 130,000 litre distillery, a cellar door, eight bond stores, a working cooperage and the historic stables and homestead.

The acquisition is to be funded through an equity raising of approximately $53m comprised of a fully underwritten unconditional placement of $46.5m and a non-underwritten conditional placement of $6.4m.

Gadens was engaged by Lark to advise on all legal aspects of the transaction, including the institutional placement. Barrenjoey Capital Partners acted as lead manager to the placement and Pitcher Partners acted as financial and tax advisers to Lark on the transaction.

Gadens has supported Lark for a number of years on a range of transactions, including its previous capital raise.

“It was great to be able to work with Lark again on what is an exciting acquisition for the company. Lark has an exciting few years ahead and I look forward to seeing it continue to succeed”, commented Jeremy Smith, lead Partner on the transaction and Head of the Corporate Team at Gadens.

Practice groups: Corporate.

Deal value: The total consideration of the acquisition is $40m, with the associated capital raise totalling $53m.

Deal significance: The acquisition raises the number of distilleries owned by Lark to three and supports Lark’s growth vision of becoming a global icon in single malt whisky.

Key team members: Gadens partner Jeremy Smith led the transaction with support from Steven Wambeek (Senior Associate) and Michael Castricum (Associate).