David Eliakim is the practice leader of our Australian mergers and acquisitions group. David has particular expertise in the infrastructure and property sectors and brings over 25 years’ experience to his practice.
Most recently, David was part of the KWM team that advised a Blackstone-led consortium on its $24 billion acquisition of AirTrunk, a data centre operator; and advised Qatar Airways on its 25% investment in Virgin Australia.
David has also helped a Transurban-led consortium take full ownership of Westconnex in a $10bn deal involving NSW’s largest private road network; supported Telstra on its $5.8 billion joint venture with a Future Fund-led consortium over Telstra’s tower portfolio; acted for AustralianSuper on the $2bn part sale of its interest in Ausgrid, an electricity distributor; worked with Brookfield on its $1bn acquisition of an interest in Intellihub, a smart-metering business, from PEP and Landis+Gyr; and assisted NatWest on the sale of its 20% stake in NSW Land Registry Services.
David frequently advises major real estate and investment funds in the property sector. He has guided repeat client, GIC, on a series of transactions including on its $2.1bn disposal of its interest in industrial properties joint venture with Dexus; on its $3.8bn joint venture with ESR to acquire Blackstone's Milestone industrial portfolio; and most recently on its $270 million joint venture with National Storage REIT. Lendlease has also drawn on David’s expertise on the $1.3 billion sale of 12 masterplanned communities projects to Stockland and the establishment of its build-to-rent platform. Other key property sector clients include Macquarie Asset Management, GPT and Oxford Properties Group.
David has acted on a number of Australia’s most significant public M&A transactions, including Brookfield’s $5.7 billion acquisition of Healthscope, CKI’s $7.4 billion acquisition of DUET Group and Pendal’s defence of its $2.5 billion acquisition by Perpetual.
David also supports clients to raise capital, including advising Abacus Property Group on the $3 billion demerger and IPO of its self-storage business; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS on Lendlease’s most recent capital raising, a $1.15bn placement and security purchase plan offer; and most recently Elanor Commercial Property Fund on its $52 million entitlement offer.
According to Chambers & Partners, David’s work is described as "high quality, prompt and pragmatic," commenting: "He always has a legal view which balances the commerciality of a matter." "He is a cool head and a very proficient technical lawyer who can think his way through problems. He is also good with more informal advice and is great to bounce ideas off."
David was formerly a lecturer on Hybrid Securities at the University of Sydney. David is also a member of the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia.
