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.
In recent times, David helped the Sydney Transport Partners consortium (consisting of Transurban and a number of super and pension funds) take full ownership of Westconnex in a $10b deal involving NSW’s largest private road network. He also supported Telstra on its $5.8b joint venture with a Future Fund-led consortium over Telstra’s tower portfolio; AustralianSuper on the $2b part sale of its interest in Ausgrid; and Brookfield on its $1b acquisition of an interest in Intellihub from PEP and Landis+Gyr.
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 $2.1b disposal of its interest in industrial properties joint venture with Dexus; and on its $3.8b joint venture with ESR to acquire Blackstone's Milestone industrial portfolio. Lendlease has also drawn on David’s expertise on the establishment in 2022 of its build-to-rent platform and restructure of its APPF series of funds; sale of 25% interest in Victoria Cross Metro Station; and the joint ventures in respect of International House Sydney and Daramu House. 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 $5.7b acquisition of Healthscope, CKI’s $7.4 billion acquisition of DUET Group and, most recently, Pendal’s defence of its $2.5b acquisition by Perpetual.
David also supports clients to raise capital, including advising Abacus Property Group on the demerger and IPO in 2023 of its self-storage business and both its 2020 and 2022 capital raisings; and Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS on Lendlease’s most recent capital raising, a $1.15b placement and security purchase plan 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."
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.
