Herbert Smith Freehills recognised for Australian M&A expertise

Herbert Smith Freehills has collected two coveted awards at the inaugural Mergermarket Australia M&A Awards held in Sydney on 5 September 2018. 

The firm was named both the Energy, Mining and Utilities M&A Legal Advisor of the Year and the Consumer M&A Legal Advisor of the Year.

The firm’s energy and mining M&A team received its award in recognition of its work on transformational and ‘first of kind’ transactions in FY18. During this time, the team advised: Origin Energy on the sale of its conventional upstream oil & gas business Lattice Energy to Beach Energy for A$1.585 billion; Yancoal Australia in relation to its acquisition of Rio Tinto’s Hunter Valley coal projects; Alinta on the acquisition of the 1,000MW Loy Yang B Power Station in Victoria; Santos on defence of the A$14.4 billion Harbour Energy takeover bid; and NSW Treasury on the sale of its 58% shareholding in Snowy Hydro Limited for A$4.154 billion.

In 2018, the team also cemented its reputation as the pre-eminent advisors for project finance in the renewables sector across Australia and New Zealand after topping the Inframation Deals league tables for 2017 by both deal count and deal value. The team advised on more than double the number of deals than its nearest competitor and on transactions with a combined value of A$5.5 billion, almost A$2.5 billion more than the next firm.

Herbert Smith Freehills’ Consumer M&A practice took out its award for its work on large-scale, complex domestic and cross-border consumer M&A transactions in FY18. This included advising: Murray Goulburn, Australia's largest dairy company, on the A$1.3 billion sale of all of its operating assets and operating liabilities to Saputo Dairy Australia; Hanesbrands, the listed US-based apparel manufacturer and distributor, on its A$500m cross-border acquisition of Bras N Things; and Temasek Holdings, the Singapore-based state owned company, on its acquisition of Australia-based company, The Real Petfood Company.

Carolyn Pugsley, Head of the Corporate practice at Herbert Smith Freehills’ said: “I’d like to congratulate our hard-working energy and mining, and consumer M&A teams on their success.

“As a firm we are lucky to have many of the country’s leading M&A practitioners and countless rising stars among our ranks. The exceptional client work that these talented individuals bring to bear on some of the market’s largest and most complex transactions every day is truly impressive. They are at the top of their game and are thoroughly deserving of these awards.

“I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank our clients to whom we owe much of our success. We’re grateful to all of our clients for giving us the opportunity to work alongside them on their most important transactions.”

Herbert Smith Freehills has had a very successful 2018 to date, garnering a number of industry awards and league table recognition including:

• Law Firm of the Year Award at the Australasian Law Award (for the second consecutive year);
• Law Firm of the Year Award at the Australian Law Awards;
• Dealmaker of the Year Award, for the second consecutive year at the Australian Law Awards – Rebecca Maslen-Stannage;
• Commercial Team of the Year Award at the Australian Law Awards – Head Office Advisory Team (HOAT);
• Four prestigious awards at the  Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year Awards, being the Commercial Partner of the Year, Financial Services Partner of the Year, Dispute Resolution and Litigation Partner of the Year and Partner of the Year Excellence Awards;
• Ranking 1st by deal count and 1st by deal value in completed deals for Australia and New Zealand in the 2018 H1 Thomson Reuters M&A league tables.

About Herbert Smith Freehills

Operating from 27 offices across Asia Pacific, EMEA and North America, Herbert Smith Freehills is at the heart of the new global business landscape providing premium quality, full-service legal advice. The firm provides many of the world’s most important organisations with access to market-leading dispute resolution, projects and transactional legal advice, combined with expertise in a number of global industry sectors, including Banks, Consumer products, Energy, Financial buyers, Infrastructure & Transport, Mining, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Real estate, TMT and Manufacturing & Industrials.

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