Ashurst has advised Sankaty Advisors, LLC (Sankaty) and Deutsche Bank Sydney Branch (DB) as the winning consortium on the acquisition of the Australian and New Zealand commercial finance business of GE Commercial Finance.

The GE Commercial business has five separate pools of loan products all of which are differently structured and have very different credit dynamics. Separate due diligence, structuring solutions and financing arrangements were required for each of these different loan pools. Ashurst advised the consortium in regards to the due diligence, share acquisition, tax effect and structuring of the bid.

The Ashurst team was led by partners James Marshall, David Stammers (Corporate) and Graeme Tucker (Finance). The team also consisted of partners Timothy Sackar, Jock O'Shea, Kenneth Nguyen, Lionel Meehan, Matthew Stott, Vivian Chang, Geoff Mann, Ian Kellock and Mark Stanbridge; consultant Ian Fullerton; senior associates Ashleigh Kable, Michael Dearden, Sarah Worrall, Tom McDonald, Caroline Rasaiah, Jefferson Wong, Mike Orban, Chun Wing Yeung, Wendy Ho, Nicola Shaw, Trent Chugg and Michael Murray; and lawyers Michelle Sim, Carone Huang, James Riseam, Matt Benson, Jakeob Brown, Bonnie So, Alexander Beaton, Jack Orford, Andrew Clarke, Jacqueline Chan, Rachael Fahy, Soo Govender, Peta Smith, Bradley Meyerowitz, Justine Fox and Christine Joo.