Brett Heading offers clients the opportunity to benefit from his years of government service and in-depth experience advising company boards and government-owned corporations on compliance, governance, fiduciary, and M&A matters. His experience also includes managing capital raisings for ASX-listings and directing listed and unlisted companies in the life sciences, property, agribusiness, and energy sectors.
Prior to joining Jones Day, Brett was a director or chairman of a number of ASX-listed companies and has coalface experience as a director. From 1997 to 2009, he served as a member of the Takeovers Panel, where he sat on 28 panel matters including 20 as sitting president. He was one of the longest serving members of the Takeovers Panel in the history of the organization, and his term was renewed by the federal treasurer on four occasions.
Brett is a former member of the Board of Taxation, an appointment that has given him insight into the relationships between the federal government, the federal treasury, and the Australian Taxation Office. During his tenure with the Board of Taxation, he was also a member of the working party on the Review of International Tax and chairman of the working party on the Review of Share Buy Backs. In addition, he served for more than 10 years as a member of the legal committee of the Australian government's corporations & markets advisory committee, advising the treasurer on Australian corporations and securities policy and law reform issues, particularly those with a strong technical content.
Experience
The following represents experience acquired prior to joining Jones Day.
Served as lead adviser on ASX listings of many household names in Queensland, including Wide Bay Building Society, Northern Building Society, Mackay Building Society, Technology One, Peplin, Alchemia, Cardno, Ausenco, Wilson HTM, ERM Power, Corporate Travel Management,,and Shine Lawyers.
Led the defense team for Queensland Gas in the hostile takeover bid by Santos in 2007 that extended over a six-month period.
Served as lead adviser to Queensland Gas in a number of domestic M&A transactions and in relation to its takeover by British Gas, which was the largest on market takeover bid in Australia's history ($5.8 billion in 2008).
Seed investor in a number of early stage projects, including Peplin Biotech, which included advising the company on its initial private capital raisings and its ASX listing and becoming a director prior to the IPO.
Appointed chairman of Autogen Limited in 2002 and remained chairman during its transition to AGT Biosciences and ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals. During this time, significant capital was raised through prospectus and private placement offerings, Alta Partners and GBS Ventures became substantial shareholders, a licence deal was undertaken with Hospira, and Cephalon ultimately made a successful takeover bid. Retired from the ChemGenex board on completion of the takeover.
Served as lead adviser in a number of demutualizations in the cooperative sector, including Darling Downs Bacon, First Australian Building Society, Grainco, Golden Circle, and Port Curtis Dairy.
Advised the board of Mackay Ports in the privatization of the Mackay Airport.
Served as chairman of numerous due diligence committees (both capital raising and M&A) as a consequence of lead role on transactions and managed the participation of a variety of experts from different disciplines (investment bankers, chartered accountants, independent experts) and legal teams from other firms.
Advised a number of government authorities during the restructure of the Queensland electricity industry.
Served as nonexecutive director or chairman of a number of public companies (including Australian Agricultural Company).
Served as lead adviser on the Shine Lawyers IPO.
Served as lead adviser to Wanda Dalian on major acquisitions in Australia in 2014.
Served as lead adviser to Dalian Yifang Group on the acquisition of Hoyts Group in 2014 and was invited to become a director after the acquisition.
- University of Queensland (LL.B. Hons. 1978; Bachelor of Commerce 1976)
- Queensland
Best Lawyers — Brisbane corporate law and mergers and acquisitions law lists (2018, 2017, and 2016) and M&A "Lawyer of the Year" (2013)
Doyle's Guide — ranked as a "Leading Corporate Lawyer" (2018 and 2017) and as "preeminent" (2018, 2015) in the leading Queensland corporate lawyers category (2017)
Centenary Medal (government award, 2003)
Fellow, Australian Institute of Company Directors
- English