Herbert Smith Freehills has advised the successful bidder, NSW Ports Consortium, on the A$5.07 billion lease of Port Botany and Port Kembla from the New South Wales Government, the largest NSW Government transaction to date.

The NSW Ports Consortium won the 99-year lease of state-owned port assets following a six month competitive bid process. The assets will be leased at a cost of A$5.07 billion, with net proceeds of around A$4 billion to be invested in Restart NSW, the state government’s infrastructure fund.

The successful bid by NSW Ports included an A$2 billion project finance debt package committed by a syndicate of ten local and overseas banks. The Herbert Smith Freehills team negotiated and documented the syndicated debt for the Consortium.

The core Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by Partners Josh Sgro, Brendan Quinn and Gerard Pike. Lawyers supporting the transaction included Senior Associates Erin Wyeth, Hilary Cure and Jae Lemin and Solicitors Cameron Watson and Cassidy Prent.

Herbert Smith Freehills also separately advised individual consortium member sponsors including AustralianSuper. The Herbert Smith Freehills team advising AustralianSuper was led by partner Sarrah Coffey, with support from senior associate Jodi Weedon.

Josh Sgro commented that: “Herbert Smith Freehills has a long and deep relationship with IFM and so we are very proud to have assisted them and the other NSW Ports Consortium members in this landmark acquisition. This result represents the culmination of the tremendous hard work and determination of the NSW Ports bid team and its advisors over many months and is a credit to all involved.”

UBS were financial advisors to the NSW Ports Consortium. Minter Ellison acted for the NSW Government and King & Wood Mallesons were legal advisors to the financiers.

http://www.herbertsmithfreehills.com/news/news20130416-herbert-smith-fr…