HWL Ebsworth's Financial Services and Regulatory team acted for the consortium comprised of KKR, Varde Partners and Deutsche Bank in the AUD8.2 billion acquisition of GE Capital Finance Australasia Pty Ltd's Australian and New Zealand consumer lending business.  The acquisition is one of the largest private equity transactions ever in Australia and New Zealand.

GE's consumer lending business has more than three million customers and offers a range of consumer financial products including sales finance, credit cards, personal loans and consumer credit insurance.

The HWL Ebsworth team was responsible for conducting the Australian regulatory due diligence and advising the consortium on key legal issues including compliance with the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) and the credit reporting provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).  The team was led by Stephen Cavanagh and Ruth Neal and included Mark Kimberley, Andrew Young, Cara Walkam, Renji Cai and Ben Gulson.

HWL Ebsworth worked with Ashurst Australia, who were the principal legal advisers to the consortium and dealt with all other Australian aspects of the transaction.