Bio

Toby Sharpe is a corporate partner with experience across a wide range of commercial transactions including mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings, corporate restructurings, joint ventures and other complex transactions. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Toby builds long term relationships with his clients. He gets to know their business and issues in order to present the advice that gets the results they need. He has a reputation for being able to get alongside his clients and other stakeholders, having a facilitative and collaborative working style and providing well-informed and pragmatic advice. Toby recently advised Element Financial on its acquisition of General Electric's New Zealand fleet management and equipment finance business. He advised Crescent Capital on its acquisition of a controlling stake in Prime Panels. He has also advised on some of the most complex equity capital markets transactions over recent years. He has acted on many of the recent initial public offerings, including those of: Fliway, Metro Performance Glass, Gentrack, Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy. He regularly advises on other forms of equity capital markets transactions, such as rights issues, block trades and placements, both for issuers and lead managers. Toby worked on significant debt and equity restructurings, including the restructurings of the Yellow Pages Group and Metroglass. He recently advised D&S Communications on its acquisition of Mako Networks (In Receivership) and acted for McGrath Nicol as receivers of GEON on the sale of its New Zealand business to the Blue Star Group. Toby was appointed a Bell Gully partner at the start of 2013, having returned to the firm in 2009 from four years working in the corporate team of the London office of Herbert Smith Freehills. The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021 recommends Toby for corporate and M&A. The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2017 described him as "the best young M&A lawyer around". Chambers Asia Pacific 2023 ranks Toby as leading corporate/commercial lawyer. In a previous edition of Chambers Asia Pacific 2022, Toby was described as a “respected practitioner" and it was stated that he was active across ECM and M&A transactions for clients in the financial services and technology sectors. In a previous edition, Toby is described as a "very good, smart, thorough and diligent" lawyer. Toby is also ranked as highly regarded in the IFLR1000 2022 for his private equity and M&A work.