Cairns & Company is an independent investment banking firm for founders, families and owner-led businesses across New Zealand, Australia and South-East Asia — and we back our conviction with our own capital.
We advise on the decisions that define a company — selling it, acquiring another, restructuring it, or shaping its next phase.
We work deliberately at the under-$100 million end of the market, where one experienced principal makes more difference than a large team. Clients deal directly with the person running their deal, start to finish.
Much of our work arrives by introduction, from advisers who trust us with their own clients. We deliberately take on a limited number of mandates at a time, so the principal stays close to every deal — and the discretion these situations demand is never an afterthought.
For each mandate we draw on a wide network of specialists — legal, due diligence, debt, sector expertise — so clients get the reach of a larger firm without losing the focus of a boutique. The firm has operated from Auckland since 2014.
Four ways we work with the businesses we believe in — as adviser, and as investor.
Buy- and sell-side advisory, from first approach through valuation, negotiation and execution to close.
Reshaping balance sheets, ownership and operations — whether under pressure or by design.
Ongoing, senior counsel on the decisions that set a company's direction and capital structure.
We take equity and co-invest alongside our clients, keeping our interests and theirs in the same place.
Sectors we have not only advised, but built and governed.
We invest our own capital alongside our clients. It keeps everyone honest.
Across close to four decades, the firm's principal has advised on more than 40 transactions worth over $750 million — across natural health, forestry, junior mining, financial services and manufacturing, and across New Zealand, Australia and South-East Asia.
Detailed credentials and representative mandates are available on request, in confidence.
Stuart has spent close to forty years in investment banking and corporate finance. He began as an investment banker at Anzon Capital, then co-founded the investment bank and sharebroking firm D.F. Mainland Group, which he chaired and went on to lead as managing director and executive director of investment banking. He established Cairns & Company in 2014.
Alongside his advisory work he builds and leads companies as an owner and director — including seven years as Chair of the natural-health B Corp Manuka Bioscience, which he helped grow and take into Asia. That blend of adviser, operator and investor is what Cairns & Company brings to every mandate.