Baker & McKenzie is acting for US-based Platinum Equity on its first acquisition in Australia -  the $454 million purchase of a 70% stake in Sensis from Telstra.

Platinum Equity is a leading global mergers & acquisitions & operations firm headquartered in Los Angeles. Sensis is the publisher of the Yellow and White Pages phone directories.

The Baker & McKenzie team is being led by Corporate partner, Craig Andrade who is being assisted by a large team of lawyers including partners Simon De Young, Adrian Lawrence, Anthony Foley, John Walker, Sean Rush and Bryony Binns and associates Tyson May and Lawrence Mendes.

Andrade said, “We were very pleased to assist Platinum with their first acquisition in Australia. Having such a significant private equity transaction kick start 2014 should be good for the market as a whole and continues the trend of broader confidence that we have seen over the last six months in the equities markets.”