Adelaide legal company Kain C+C has advised South Australian-based SeaLink Travel Group Ltd (ASX:SLK) on its recently announced $125 million acquisition of Queensland’s Transit Systems Marine, as well as a capital raising of up to $56.9 million by way of placement and SPP.

The acquisition will add further passenger and commercial ferry routes in Moreton Bay, Gladstone and Brisbane to make SeaLink Australia’s largest marine transport and tourism business.

“This acquisition forms a key part of SeaLink’s business strategy to seek domestic growth opportunities in the marine transport and tourism sectors.

“It will significantly increase SeaLink’s scale and broaden its expertise, positioning SeaLink to compete for new business opportunities in Australia and overseas,” said James Burchnall, Kain C+C Director and leader of the deal team.

The deal will see SeaLink add to and diversify its significant national tourism and travel portfolio, which currently includes commercial and passenger ferry routes to Kangaroo Island in South Australia, Magnetic Island and Palm Island in Queensland and the Tiwi Islands in Northern Territory together with the iconic Captain Cook Cruises in Sydney Harbour. 

The acquisition will be partly funded by a share placement of approximately $40 million to sophisticated and professional investors and a share purchase plan (SPP) that could raise up to $16.9 million. The Kain C+C team also advised on this capital raising which is expected to see SeaLink’s market capitalisation increase to more than $250 million.

According to SeaLink CEO Jeff Ellison, Kain C+C Lawyers’ approach to the deal was a key part of successfully negotiating the acquisition and raising the capital.

“We found the team at Kain C+C to not only have the legal expertise we required, but the team was decisive, always available and unafraid to apply their commercial judgement to advise us in what was a significant acquisition for our business,” he said.

Kain C+C’s deal team also included Sarah Chia, James Frearson-Lea and Joshua Bell. The transaction is the most recent of a long series of transactions undertaken by Kain C+C’s specialist M&A team.