Johnson Winter Slattery (JWS) advised Archer Capital on the ~A$820 million sale of illion to Experian, bringing together two of Australia's three consumer credit bureaux. JWS advised on all legal aspects of the transaction, including on the process for obtaining competition clearance from the ACCC.
The transaction completed on 30 September 2024. Corporate Partner James Rozsa led the JWS team, with Partner and Head of Competition Sar Katdare, and Finance Partner David Beckett. The team also comprised Special Counsel Kate Gardner and David Li, Senior Associates Nathan Ricardo and Morgan Blaschke-Broad, and Associates Jack Morey, Alex Kench, Oscar Liu, Hannah Alcock and Sharon Ragunathan.
Commenting on the deal, James Rozsa said: “It will be interesting to see the development of the credit bureau market following such a significant merger, given the Commission found that it ‘may actually provide a greater competitive constraint on [the largest market participant] than if the two players continued to operate alone”. And more personally, it has been an honour to have worked with Archer Capital and the illion management team throughout the history of this investment, and of course to have assisted long-time client Archer in another successful exit.”
JWS is a leading independent Australian law firm of more than 450 people, including 85+ partners, across six offices nationally.
The JWS Corporate team won best technology, media and telecommunications firm in the 2023 Mergermarket M&A Awards Australia. We specialise in mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets, and have advised on some of Australia’s largest transactions. The JWS Competition team was ranked Tier 1 in The Best Lawyers in Australia 2025 and selected as one of the top 100 competition teams in the world by Global Competition Review – GCR 100.
Angela Welsh Marketing & Communications Manager T: +61 2 9392 7454 | M: +61 414 281 902 E: angela.welsh@jws.com.au