Deal: O’Driscoll Coaches Derwent Valley Link — which operates 10 government-contracted services, including school bus and general access services, and 33 buses across three depots between Hobart and the Derwent Valley — has been sold to Kinetic, which is expanding its footprint in Tasmania.

Area: Transport

Value: Undisclosed

Key players: The Piper Alderman team was led by partner Maria Capati, who was supported by senior associate Kara Pennisi and lawyer Grace Hooper.

Deal significance: Speaking about the sale, Ms Capati said: “It was wonderful to be approached by Peter to act for his family in this matter. Peter Dwyer and I have known Peter and Erica for a long time through our work for the Tasmanian Bus Association over the years.

“When Peter called me to let me know that he and his family were selling and that he would like me to act for them, I felt a mixture of sadness that another family operator was exiting the Tasmanian bus industry, but I was also touched that he chose me to lead his family and his other advisers in this transaction.”

The O’Driscoll family added: “We have had a decade-long association with Maria Capati, and she has represented or advised us promptly and professionally on many occasions over that period. So it was an easy choice when it came time to sell our cherished family business to a large national company that we engaged with Maria and Piper Alderman.

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“I had no idea how much was involved in selling the type of business we had, especially how we’d structured it. Maria and her team at Piper Alderman helped conduct the transaction with great knowledge, dogged persistence and, most of all, compassion for us as her clients. Maria and her team were only ever a phone call away, and our calls were always answered, no matter the time of day or night. They were able to liaise professionally and quickly with our financial accounting team, and together they achieved the best possible result for our family, which seemed unlikely at the start of negotiations.”