An Australian federal court has ruled that the acquirer of a company is not entitled to certain communications involving legal counsel retained by both the company and its private equity sellers.
The case stemmed from Japanese beverage giant Asahi Holdings’ 2011 acquisition of New Zealand’s Flavoured Beverages Group Holdings Ltd. from Australia’s Pacific Equity Partners and Hong Kong-based Unitas Capital Pte. Ltd. for $1.3 billion. Asahi subsequently sued PEP and Unitas, claiming the private equity firms had inflated the company’s earnings in the course of due diligence on the deal.
