Tayla Johnston
Senior Associate - Corporate and Commercial

Tayla is a skilled corporate and commercial lawyer with over eight years of experience.
She advises on all aspects of private mergers and acquisitions (M&A), shareholder and subscription agreements, joint venture agreements, constitutions, corporate governance, and commercial contracts. She also has experience advising buyers, sellers, and insurers on warranty and indemnity insurance.
Tayla provides commercial law advice to a broad range of clients based both in New Zealand and overseas, including individuals, private companies, SMEs, large corporates, and private equity funds. She regularly acts on deals involving a large number of vendors and is skilled at managing complex transactions.
Tayla has significant expertise in the health and aged care sectors, having previously acted for Evolve, Aspire2, Habit, Bupa, and Arena Living and, more recently, acting on the sale of several radiology businesses.
Her work in the health and aged care sectors is complemented by her expertise in the retirement village industry and knowledge of retirement village law. Working alongside Liz Rowe, she regularly acts for number of operators, Covenant Trustee Services Limited, and also ASB Bank Limited, advising on registrations, financing, land acquisitions, village sales and compliance matters, as well as disputes.
A dedicated, knowledgeable, and personable adviser, Tayla strives to understand her clients, their drivers and their businesses, and to deliver the best outcomes to them. Clients appreciate her friendly nature, diligence, and commercial approach.
Professional background
Recent work
Sale of MMC to Apex
Advising Pencarrow Private Equity and the other shareholders of MMC on the sale of that business to Apex (having also advised Pencarrow-backed investment administration specialist MMC on their acquisition of Aegis).
Sale of Ritchies Transport to KKR
Advising the shareholders of Ritchies Transport on all aspects of the sale of that company to KKR.
Multiple radiology transactions
Advising the shareholders of Auckland Radiology Group on the sale of their business to Infratil.
Advising the shareholders of Hamilton Radiology Limited and Midland MRI Limited on the sale of their respective businesses to IMED, Australia’s largest radiology business.
Acting for Aintree Finance Limited on the sale of 100% of the shares in Ascot Radiology Limited to IDX (having previously acted on the buy-out of Abano Healthcare).
Multiple transactions for Habit Health
Advising UK based private equity firm Livingbridge on Habit Health’s acquisition of Southern Rehab (having previously advised the shareholders of Habit Health (including New Zealand Equity Partners) on the sale of Habit to Livingbridge).
NZEP’s investment in HazardCo
Acting for NZ Equity Partners in respect of their investment in HazardCo Holding Company Limited.
Acquisition of Timely
Advising US based service commerce platform EverCommerce on its acquisition of Timely, a New Zealand booking software developer.
Admitted
- 2014, New Zealand
Qualifications
- LLB, BA, University of Otago
Affiliations
- Committee member - Emerging Talent in M&A
Specialisations
- Aged Care and Health
- Corporate Governance
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Private Equity
- Retirement Village Law
- Warranty and Indemnity Insurance
Awards
- Member of Corporate and M&A team, ranked Tier 1 by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific
- Member of Corporate/Commercial team, ranked Band 1 by Chambers Asia-Pacific
Tayla Johnston
- Office
- Auckland
- Phone
- +64 9 353 9974
- Mobile
- +64 21 051 4065
- Tayla.Johnston@minterellison.co.nz
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tayla-johnston-70aa21141/?originalSubdomain=nz