MinterEllison advised long standing client Salter Brothers on the initial public offering (IPO) and ASX listing of the listed investment company, Salter Brothers Emerging Companies Limited (ASX: SB2).

SB2 commenced trading on the ASX on 16 June, with a net asset value of approximately $100 million. The Company focuses on listed and unlisted emerging companies investments with a market capitalisation under $500 million – and, as outlined by Salter Brothers, 'offers investors an opportunity to gain exposure to unlisted emerging companies that investors may not otherwise be able to access directly'.

MinterEllison’s lead Partner on the transaction, Steven Wang, said: “We’re proud to have had the opportunity to support the Salter Brothers team on this transaction. This IPO illustrates that there is still investor interest in listed investment companies which have a compelling strategy or differentiated offering – and, as with other successful IPOs we have worked on in the past few months, is a great sign that capital markets activity in Australia remains strong."

"This was a complex transaction which had a number of unique components, including a tailored investment management agreement which matches Significant Investor Visa regime requirements. MinterEllison has now acted on a number of the most recent ASX LIC IPOs, and we were pleased to bring MinterEllison's deep listed investment company expertise to the table to achieve a successful result for our client.”

Steven was supported by others across MinterEllison, including Bart Oude-Vrielink (Partner), John O'Connell (Special Counsel), Hannah Dixon (Senior Associate), Mark Simkiss (Associate), Philippa Symon (Associate), Kristy Turner (Lawyer), Elizabeth Schuster (Lawyer), Vincent Lau (Lawyer), Hanh Vi Nguyen (Lawyer), China Waters (Lawyer) and Alice Tyson (Graduate).

The transaction leveraged MinterEllison's broad spectrum of expert knowledge, with tax expertise from Adrian Varrasso (Partner), Robert Yunan (Special Counsel) and Daniel Kornberg (Senior Associate), and financial services and SIV regime expertise from Richard Batten (Partner), Michael Mellon (Special Counsel) and Nicole Martinez (Lawyer).