LAWFUEL – Australia & NZ Legal Jobs & News – Blake Dawson advised on three CFO Magazine deals of the year announced this week. The winning deals in the 2007 CFO Awards included:
IPO of the Year – Boart Longyear
Structured Finance Transaction of the Year – Reliance Rail consortium
Project Finance Deal of the Year – Bonnyrigg Living Communities Project.
Led by Sarah Dulhunty, the Blake Dawson Equity Capital Markets team is one of the strongest and most recognised in Australia, having advised on many of the largest Australian IPOs during the past year. These included acting for the Joint Global Coordinators on the CFO Award-winning Boart Longyear IPO and acting for Platinum Asset Management which listed with a market capitalisation of $4.9 billion and was a finalist for the Award.
The Equity Capital Markets team has also worked on significant secondary raisings including Lihir’s $1.2 billion RAPIDS offer (which was a finalist for Best Secondary Equity Market Deal of the Year) and Newcrest’s $2 billion RAPIDS offer, the two largest capital raisings in the Australian mining industry.
Sarah Dulhunty said: “The Blake Dawson Equity Capital Markets team has once again demonstrated its pre-eminence in the legal market and this reinforces our strong rankings in IPO league tables for FY 2006 and 07. The practice is well recognised for its quality work on complex IPOs and secondary raisings and has worked very hard to achieve its leading market position”.
Blake Dawson also acted for Reliance Rail on its $3.6 billion NSW Rolling Stock PPP project which won the CFO Award for Structured Finance Transaction of the Year. The project is the largest single order of rolling stock ever in Australia and the largest Private Public Partnership to date. The firm’s multi-award winning Infrastructure team also worked on the innovative Bonnyrigg housing project, acting for the Bonnyrigg Partnerships consortium, which won the CFO Award for Project Finance Deal of the Year.
Blake Dawson’s acclaimed Infrastructure team led by Joanne Evans worked on both these significant projects which again demonstrates the depth of expertise of the practice.
“The Reliance Rail deal is a significant PPP project, not just because of the size, but also because it will enhance the State’s transport infrastructure and improve service delivery and long term capabilities of CityRail”, said Joanne.
“Bonnyrigg is the first true public housing PPP in Australia and has a number of other innovative aspects, the most outstanding being the combination of PPP and urban renewal. We are delighted to have played a significant role in both these award-winning projects which are a great credit to the skills of our clients and to the talent and hard work of our teams across the firm”.
