Global firm acts on AU$300 million Aussie real estate deals

Global firm acts on AU$300 million Aussie real estate deals
Teams from Herbert Smith Freehills in Melbourne and Brisbane have been involved in two concurrent deals involving AU$300 million worth of Australian real estate assets.

The firm acted for M&G Real Estate Asia in both deals, which saw the sale of one property and the acquisition of another. The other party in both deals was AFIAA Foundation for Real Estate Investments.

The team from Melbourne acted for M&G on the sale of QBE House in the city for more than $180 million and was led by partner David Sinn assisted by senior associate Niresha Mudalige.

Meanwhile, the Brisbane team acted for M&G on its acquisition of HQ South Tower in Fortitude Valley for almost $120 million. This deal was led by Brisbane partner Michael Back with the assistance of senior associate Lisa Di Marco.

“This deal of QBE House, along with the acquisition of HQ South Tower in Brisbane, shows that the commercial property market in Australian capital cities continues to strengthen,” commented David Sinn.

NRF strikes gold with Macquarie project financing deal
Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Macquarie Bank on a project financing to Perseus Mining Côte d'Ivoire, a subsidiary of Perseus Mining Limited.

In what is believed to be a first ever project financing of a gold mining project in Côte d'Ivoire, and the first ever under the current Ivorian mining laws. The $40 million project loan facility will be used for development and operating costs of the Sissingué gold project.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s team was led by Perth partner Alen Pazin.

"This transaction is the first project financing in Côte d'Ivoire to involve taking security under its current mining laws. Navigating through the West African Central Bank monetary regulations was also a critical piece of structuring this deal, and we are proud to be one of very few firms with regulatory and structuring expertise of this sort in Francophone Africa,” said Pazin.

Lawyers claim victory for Facebook shareholders
Facebook has dropped a plan which would have allowed its founder and chief executive to retain power even as he sells blocks of his shareholding.

Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to give away all of his wealth during his lifetime and the company was proposing to issue a new non-voting stock class that would have meant him retaining his voting majority even as he sold other stock.

A class action due to start today (26th September) claimed that Zuckerberg would be given an unfair economic advantage if the issue went ahead, it further challenged how the deal was negotiated.

"We're thrilled that Facebook has dropped the reclassification," said attorney Stuart Grant of Grant & Eisenhofer, representing several institutional investors. "Stopping the issuance of the non-voting C shares is all the relief we were asking for at trial. Today's move is a total victory for stockholders."