Welcome to the July edition of The Dispatch. We hope you have commenced the new financial year strongly! Our headline deal is a milestone financing for the energy sector - advising on the largest financing of a BESS globally. We also see noteworthy deal activity shaping the private equity space and the financial services and real estate sectors.
Our headline deal for this edition is the largest financing of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) globally. Claire Rogers, Amy Maguire and Chris Dynon led a team to act for lenders on the $650M financing of Akaysha Energy’s Orana BESS. The financing will provide construction funding for the project which is “one of the largest four-hour BESS’ globally” and is set to add more than 1,660MWh of storage capacity to the National Electricity Market. Shout out to the wider team: Emma Reed and Eugenia Munoz.
Next up is another important transaction in the energy sector. Vishal Ahuja and Jessica Kruger worked together to lead a team acting for AEMO Services on Tender round 4 of renewable generation infrastructure critical for NSW’s energy security. The successful projects will assist delivery of the state’s minimum investment objectives of 12GW of renewable energy generation by 2030 and Australia’s transition to renewable energy. Congratulations to the wider team: Aaron Brooks, Capucine Hague, Annelise Nguyen, Ishita Mattoo, Kyra Lee and Thalia Velez Rodriguez.
Looking to the private equity space, Quintin du Plessis led the KWM team acting for PGIM Real Estate on the establishment of its first private credit real estate fund in Australia and $300m capital raising for its first closing. Well done to the wider team: Mark Bayliss, Gerard An, Tom Prestwidge, Will McCosker and Indraneil Ghosh.
Also in private equity, Anthony Boogert spoke to The Australian Financial Review on why private equity firms are holding onto their assets for longer than we have seen previously. In the article he shares that: “There is still a question over the valuation gap. Private equity funds might now be willing sellers, but they have high price expectations.” Read the article here to learn more.
Over to Banking & Finance, Anne-Marie Neagle led a team to act for Household Capital (HHC) as drafting counsel for HHC’s inaugural reverse mortgage term securitisation. The rated transaction raised $263m to fund HHC’s continued growth, releasing a premium to par, and enabling HHC to assist retired Australian homeowners by providing home equity funding. A big congratulations to the wider team: Matt Kaminsky and Jenny Guo.
David Eliakim, Matt Coull and Sarah Yu led a team to advise Betashares on the sale of a minority stake in Betashares to global sovereign wealth investment company Temasek. The transaction marks the next phase of accelerated growth for Betashares, a leading Australian financial services business. The investment will assist in executing Betashares’ vision to build a leading, independent financial services business, providing a wide range of quality solutions to assist clients reach their financial goals. Kudos to the wider team: Genovieve Lajeunesse, Naomi Synnott and Mishon Wu.
In case you missed it, we also launched our latest edition of M&A in the City. Catch up on the latest in M&A by checking out our top 5 rules for managing competitive deal tension, learn from Alcoa's strategic shareholder engagement, dive into deal protection trends, merger regime reform and the latest view from NY in our podcast. Read and listen here.
