John Ridgway

John was brought in late to a matter needing urgent due diligence for a consortium of project sponsors and financiers for a US$400 million hydro power project in Solomon Islands. He mobilised the team  and carried out ‘on the ground’ due diligence in conjunction with our network partner in Solomon Islands. This enabled the delivery of a due diligence report and closing opinions to establish the local project company and facilitate the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars to change the source of power in that country from climate unfriendly diesel to climate friendly hydro.

John acted for the financing consortium to a project delivering the first fibre cable to Vanuatu in the Pacific, joining that country via cable with Fiji. The project included due diligence in both countries and preparation and negotiation of financing and project documents, closing opinions and facilitating drawdowns as the project progressed. On completion, the cable delivered much cheaper and more timely access to data to a country that had otherwise been beholden to access via satellite.

John acted for United Airlines in the Australian component of its global merger with Continental Airlines. The project included the creation of a new operating entity in Australia and the migration of the Australian operations of both airlines into that entity (occurring at one designated point in time when both airlines’ aircraft around the globe were grounded), together with the negotiation of all regulatory approvals from the various aviation regulators/authorities across Australia.

John has acted on various acquisitions of key equity positions in financial institutions in Australia and elsewhere, including the purchase by one of Australia’s largest banks of the operations of another bank in six jurisdictions in the Pacific. John acted as the lead legal team for the transaction, including the carrying out of multi-jurisdictional due diligence, preparation and negotiation of transaction documents, obtaining all regulatory and other approvals in all operating locations and facilitating the closing of the transaction.