King & Wood Mallesons (
KWM) has acted in the sale of a majority stake of one of Australia’s largest credit specialist firms to global financial giant.
KWM acted for Greg O’Neill and related parties on the sale of an 80% stake in La Trobe Financial Group to The Blackstone Group.
The privately-owned La Trobe, which has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, has more than $13bn in investment mandates. This portfolio includes a retail credit fund that’s nearly $2bn and more than $1bn in issued RMBS bonds.
KWM said that O’Neill will retain the remaining stake in La Trobe and will continue as chief executive of the non-bank lender. The company’s management and executive team will also stay, KWM said.
Partner Peter Stirling led the KWM team out of Melbourne. The deal continues a hot streak for the team, which recently acted on the sale of
Australian Unity’s corporate health insurance business to NIB, on the acquisition of Downer EDI’s freight rail maintenance business by the Caterpillar Group’s, on the sale by Engie and Mitsui of the
Loy Yang B Power Station to Alinta Energy, and on Transurban’s $1.9bn capital raising related to the
West Gate Tunnel Project.
Related stories:
Legal powerhouse leads in establishing Victoria’s first ‘Social Impact Bond’
Top firm acts on landmark greenfield bond financing deal
.jpg)
