Nick Baker

Nick advises clients on public and private M&A, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions.

His clients include: AGL, Alinta, ANZ, Brookfield, ENGIE, Goldman Sachs, IFM, ICG, Macquarie Capital, New Zealand Oil & Gas, O.G. Energy and Pacific Partnerships.

Nick is HSF’s Sector Lead Partner for Energy in Australia and is listed as a leading lawyer in various publications, including Legal 500, Doyle’s Guide, Best Lawyers and IFLR1000. He regularly lectures on public M&A to Melbourne Business School.

Nick’s experience includes advising:
 

M&A AND CAPITAL MARKETS

• IFM on Sydney Aviation Alliance’s proposed $32b bid for Sydney Airport
• The Brookfield consortium on their $17.8b acquisition of ASX-listed electricity network owner AusNet Services by scheme of arrangement
• The Brookfield consortium on their $9.1b scheme of arrangement and takeover proposals for logistics provider Asciano and acquisition of Asciano’s Pacific National and LINX businesses
• Fonterra on its strategic review of its Fonterra Australia business
• Xero on its acquisitions of LOCATE and PlanDay
• ANZ on its sale of a 51% interest in its merchant acquiring business to Worldline
• UAC Energy Holdings on its $1b takeover proposal for ASX-listed renewable energy company Infigen
• OZ Minerals on its $418m takeover of ASX-listed copper miner Avanco Resources Limited
• Newcrest on joint venture and equity funding agreements with Antipa Minerals
• BHP on its $13b demerger of South32 onto the ASX, LSE and JSE
• Dulux on its demerger from Orica onto the ASX
• Tabcorp on its pre-bid total return swap in ASX-listed gaming operator Tatts
• Long-Term Asset Partners on its pre-bid total return swap in ASX-listed Graincorp
• TPG Capital on its acquisition of ASX-listed Alinta Energy by creditors schemes of arrangement
• Exxaro Resource’s cross border merger with Tronox, Inc. and listing of the Australian merger vehicle on the NYSE
• The Tyrrell family on its take-private via scheme of arrangement of ASX-listed National Can Industries
• Yancoal on its scheme of arrangement with ASX-listed coal miner Gloucester Coal

ENERGY

• AGL on its acquisition of electricity retailer amaysim Energy from ASX-listed Amaysim
• AGL on its sale of its ‘National Assets’ business (comprising 17 separate co-gen, gas, CNG refuelling and other assets) to Whitehelm Capital
• AGL on its acquisition of regional broadband provider Southern Phone Company
• Alinta Energy on the acquisition of the Loy Yang B brown coal power station from ENGIE
• Brookfield on its sale of Enwave Australia (including the Tasmanian gas distribution network and Enwave’s district energy business) to Infrastructure Capital Group
• EnergyAustralia on the $1.8b sale of the Iona Gas Storage facility to Lochard Energy
• The IFM and AustralianSuper consortium on its acquisition of a 50.4% interest in Ausgrid from the New South Wales government
• IFM on the sale of the Ecogen gas-fired power plants to EnergyAustralia
• Infrastructure Capital Group on its sale of Enwave Australia’s district energy business to CleanPeak Energy
• Macquarie Capital on its sale of an 80% interest in Lal Lal Wind Farms to Northleaf Capital and InfraRed Capital
• New Zealand Oil & Gas on its acquisition of interests in 3 Northern Territory producing basins from Central Petroleum
• New Zealand Oil & Gas on its acquisition of a 15% interest in the Ironbark-1 WA offshore exploration asset and related coordination arrangements with Beach Energy, BP and Cue Energy
• O.G. Energy on its acquisition of a 40% interest in the Otway Gas Project and related exploration assets from Beach Energy
• Santos on its acquisition of a 50% participating interest in the Indonesian Northwest Natuna PSC from AWE
• A bidder on its bid for downstream petrol business Puma Energy
• A bidder on its bid for ENI’s West Australian and PNG oil and gas assets
• A bidder for a 49% interest in Woodside’s Pluto 2 LNG midstream infrastructure

RENEWABLES, HYDROGEN AND NEW ENERGY

• BP on its acquisition of a 40.5% interest in, and operatorship of, the Asia Renewable Energy Hub (a proposed 26GW renewable green-hydrogen project in Western Australia)
• China Guangdong Nuclear on its sale of Morton’s Lane Wind Farm to Whitehelm Capital
• Enerfin on the acquisition of a 50% interest in Woolsthorpe Wind Farm
• The shareholders of Epuron on the sale of its leading wind farm development business to Ark Energy (a subsidiary of Korea Zinc)
• The shareholders of ESCO Pacific on the sale of a 49% interest in its leading solar farm development business to Shell
• ENGIE on its 150MW Hazelwood battery storage project in joint venture with Macquarie
• ENGIE on a series of acquisitions to build its ‘Better Cities’ business
• Goldman Sachs on its investment in compressed air battery developer Hydrostor, Inc.
• KIAMCO and Hanwha Energy on the acquisition of the Bannerton Solar Farm
• Infrastructure Capital Group on its bid for John Laing’s Australian renewables assets
• Masdar on the acquisition of a 40% interest in the East Rockingham Resource Recovery Facility
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on its acquisition of a 20% interest in hydrogen project developer, The H2U Group
• Pacific Partnerships on the acquisition of the Glenrowan Solar Farm project
• UAC Energy Holdings on its $1 billion takeover proposal for ASX-listed renewable energy company Infigen
• LSE listed Victory Hill on its acquisition of two Australian solar farms
• Various bidders/sellers of other renewable energy assets, including the Bungala 3 Solar Farm, Lincoln Gap Wind Farm, Kennedy Energy Park, Hexham Wind Farm, Sunraysia Solar Farm and Willatook Wind Farm

INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT

• Brookfield Infrastructure acquisition of last-mile utility provider Inexus Limited
• CIMIC on its sale of John Holland to CCCI
• Fulton Hogan on the proposed sale of its Australian construction business
• Goldman Sachs on its restructure and sale of retirement village operator Retirement Alliance
• The IFM, OMERS, APG, Hostplus and SunSuper consortium on its fully documented bid for a 50.4% interest in WestConnex from the New South Wales government
• Macquarie Capital on its sale of a 30% interest in Celsus, the operator of the New Royal Adelaide Hospital to Hastings Funds Management
• The Macquarie Capital, InfraRed Capital and Pacific Partnerships consortium on the equity and joint venture arrangements for Celsus, the operator of the New Royal Adelaide Hospital
• The Pacific Partnerships, DIF and CAF consortium on the equity and joint venture arrangements for the Regional Rail rolling stock PPP
• The Pacific Partnerships, DIF and Ventia consortium on the equity and joint venture arrangements for the Outer Suburban Roads PPP
• Tawreed Investments on its investment in mobile tower infrastructure business Axicom
• Transurban in relation to the equity arrangements for the West Gate Tunnel toll road project
• Transurban in relation to the equity arrangements for the NorthConnex toll road project
• The QIC and OTPP consortium on its bid for Optus Towers

Background

Nick has a Bachelor of Laws Degree (Hons) and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Otago. Nick is admitted to practice in Victoria and New Zealand. Prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills he worked in New York for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP and in New Zealand for Russell McVeagh.