IPO, ASX Listing and Leading A Law Firm with Reece Walker, McCullough Robertson Lawyers

YS Up - Governance and Boards

In this episode of YS Up Governance and Boards Podcast, 3YS Owls Governance Consultants, Ainslie Cunningham and Deb Anderson interview Reece Walker, Chair of Partners and a member of McCullough Robertson's Executive Leadership team. Reece's broad experience includes applying his knowledge of the Corporations Act and ASX Listing Rules as well as advising on governance, stakeholder management, employee share and option plans and general commercial issues. Reece has been consistently rated as a leading capital markets and corporate M&A lawyer, by Asia Pacific Legal 500 providing high quality advice and being committed to the clients' needs. We explore with Reece IPO's in depth as well as his role in leading an award-winning law firm. "The concept of doing a pre-IPO capital raise, I think is really important. So if you can get some cornerstone investors both to contribute some capital in terms of covering the costs of all those things you need to do, but also getting that engagement so that you know you are well supported going into the IPO and the market can actually sometimes see that you've attracted that cornerstone investor or investors already. That's a really positive sign that the market will quite often look to see that you've done that. The other thing that is an important feature of IPOs at the moment is this concept of doing a suitability application. So historically, it was reasonably common just to have a bit of a light touch sort of engagement with ASX in particular and then lodge the prospectus and go forward towards listing. And I think from the engagement that we've had with the ASX in recent times, having a pre-IPO raise is actually one of the factors that may be in certain circumstances considered a positive, because it has shown that ability to fund the company. You're not going to fall off a cliff day one after the listing, and you've attracted some of the smart money that might understand that space." - Reece Walker Summary of episode · Initial Public Offerings (IPO) · The importance of working with regulators early on in an IPO · Pre-IPO capital raising · ASX Listing · The importance of well qualified and experienced advisors in the IPO process and the benefits of a reputable share registry · Leading an award-winning Law Firm · Proxy Advisors · Culture · Gender neutral pay policy · The importance of good governance · Remuneration strategies and equity incentives · Diversity About Reece Walker Reece is a leading capital markets lawyer and has extensive transactional experience in public and private capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions and restructures. Reece's broad experience includes applying his knowledge of the Corporations Act and ASX Listing Rules as well as advising on governance, stakeholder management, employee share and option plans and general commercial issues. Reece has been consistently rated as a leading capital markets and corporate M&A lawyer, by Asia Pacific Legal 500 providing high quality advice and being committed to the clients' needs. Since 2017, Reece has been ranked in the Corporate Law Category of Best Lawyers Australia. His work has covered the life sciences, technology, telecommunications,...