Search through the legal lens

Nima Sedaghat is the co-founder of Wayfinder Capital, the first institutional fund of search funds and searcher-led transactions in Australia and a partner of Australian law firm HWL Ebsworth, a full-service commercial law firm with offices all around Australia. 

He's been advising business owners, executives, Australian and foreign investors, as well as sponsors on restructures, mergers, acquisitions, and investment transactions for almost 15 years. Since 2017, he's been active in the Australian search fund ecosystem. 

He was introduced to the search fund model by a well-known person in the Australian search community Nick Bamford. He has continued his journey in search and met a lot of interesting people in the community. 

In this episode, Nima shares with us his knowledge not only in relation to legal and structuring issues but also in relation to the Australian search fund ecosystem. In this conversation, I had a great time getting into a bit of the nitty-gritty detail from a legal perspective in relation to the search fund structure. This is something that can be an unnecessary hurdle for those people thinking about search as a career path. 

Trying to consider the legal and tax implications of the search fund structure can be daunting, so it's great to know that there are people in Australia that have considered the application of the commercials of a search fund from a legal and tax perspective. It's really great to have people like Nima in our community who are helping people come to market. I hope you enjoy the conversation.  

Show Notes:

• 02:08 – Nima talks about his previous career and how the Search fund model was introduced to him by Nick Bamford who is a well-known personality in the search fund community here in Australia. 
• 07:25 – Nima talks about the key attributes of the search fund structure from a legal perspective, the Australian search fund structure itself, the investor's rights, and the technicalities of tax implications on searchers in the Australian market.      
• 16:05 – Nima talks about the foreign investments into the Australian-based search vehicle and what are the factors that would affect the Australian market and the hurdles that it is dealing with.  
• 18:16 – Nima talks about the search community, the people he met along the way, the current activities that the Wayfinder Capital is working on, and how local investors give comfort and confidence to searchers in the market.
• 26:30 – Nima discusses the next stage for the Australian market, what to look forward to in 2022 and how raising awareness about the model would greatly affect the community.

 Connect with Pete: LinkedIn

 Connect with Nima: LinkedIn