Hogan Lovells taps vast network for $1.6bn cross-border buy

Pacific-spanning super-deal needed a firm with deep resources

Hogan Lovells taps vast network for $1.6bn cross-border buy
Hogan Lovells has tapped its international network to help an American tech giant acquire a leading cloud-computing company based in Australia.

The firm advised the Oracle Corporation, which agreed buy Aconex Limited for $1.6bn.

Aconex is a global company that offers cloud-based services to manage team collaboration in construction projects. Since its founding in 2000, the Australian company’s services have been used to manage more than $1 trillion in projects across 70,000 organisations in more than 70 countries. It now has 50 offices in 30 countries.

Expected to close in the first half of the year, the deal will create the world’s most comprehensive cloud-based project management service in the US$14trn construction industry, the firm said.

Oracle is a long-time client of Hogan Lovells. The deal team was led in the US by corporate partner and Oracle relationship partner Keith Flaum and in Australia by former Australian joint managing partner Tim Lester and Perth-based M&A partner Matthew Johnson.

Hogan Lovells said that it tapped its global network to aid Oracle in the multiple jurisdictions where Aconex operates.

“We are in Australia for this very reason,” said partner David Gibbons, who leads the firm’s global corporate practice group.

The deal follows Hogan Lovell’s lead role in Swissport’s acquisition of Aerocare, the largest ground handling operator in Australia and New Zealand. The firm also utilised its global footprint to aid the aviation behemoth, the world’s largest provider of ground and cargo-handling services, in that deal.


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