Overseas Investment

Overseas Investment 

 Our team has extensive experience in obtaining consent for overseas investors to acquire land (including sensitive land) and business assets in New Zealand.

We are experts in managing the consenting process under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 from inception to completion, as well as responding to concerns about compliance with consent conditions imposed by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) following acquisition.  We have experience across a broad range of sectors including large scale property acquisitions and developments, hotel and resort development, agriculture, viticulture, commercial property, high-end residential property (including lifestyle blocks), visitor accommodation and forestry.

Our client base of offshore companies and high-net-worth individuals is testament to our ability to navigate the complexities of the Overseas Investment Act effectively and ensure applications by our clients are successful.  By working closely with the OIO throughout the consenting process, we ensure our client’s applications are processed as quickly as possible, saving our clients valuable time and costs.

We assist our clients with all other legal aspects of their investment, including investment structures, financing, local government requirements and resource management considerations.

Our overseas investment team is led by Principals Graeme Todd and Peter Sygrove.  Graeme is regularly engaged as a New Zealand based director and owner’s representative for offshore entities and individuals.  He has been a participant and speaker at New Zealand Government road shows promoting investment in New Zealand.

We are members of the NZ Chamber of Commerce in Singapore and maintain strong business connections in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, the wider Asia region and the rest of the world.

Our overseas investment experience includes acting for:

• Orange Lakes (NZ) Limited on its acquisition of Hunter Valley Station, including obtaining consent from the OIO for the acquisition of “sensitive land” and managing the ongoing OIO consent requirements
• Blue Lakes (NZ) Limited on its acquisition and development of Guide Hill Station, Lake Pukaki
• Chinese real estate group Shanghai CRED and its New Zealand subsidiaries on its acquisition and development of Carrington Resort in Northland (Peter Sygrove acted for Shanghai CRED prior to joining Todd & Walker Law)
• James Hardie on its acquisition and development of a 61-hectare property at Kaukapakapa to extract and process silica sand for fibre cement products (Peter Sygrove acted for James Hardie prior to joining Todd & Walker Law)
• Acurity Health Group on its sale and leaseback of three hospitals (Bowen, Wakefield and Royston), sold to NZX-listed Vital Healthcare Property Trust for $122m (Peter Sygrove acted for Acurity Health Group prior to joining Todd & Walker Law)

Our Overseas Investment Lawyers

Find out about the members of our Overseas Investment team