Freehills is advising Commonwealth Bank of Australia on its issue of perpetual exchangeable resaleable listed securities (PERLS V) to raise approximately A$1.5 billion (with the ability to raise more or less). The new security is a stapled security carrying franked distributions, and the raising is likely to be one of the largest Australian hybrid capital raising ever – even larger than the Bank’s A$1.465 billion PERLS IV offer, on which Freehills also advised.
The Freehills team is led by partner Philippa Stone and includes partners Fiona Gardiner-Hill and Patrick Lowden and lawyers Tim Cruickshank, Carl Hornigold, Ivan Yu and Jeremy Chew.
Ms Stone said, ‘The PERLS V raising is the latest transaction in a long and rewarding partnership between us and the Bank.’
Stone is one of Australia’s leading capital markets lawyers and was recently awarded ‘Dealmaker of the Year’ at the ALB Awards 2009. She is the co-head of the Freehills’ equity capital markets team, who are consistently recognised as a market leader.
Freehills’ capital markets team has advised issuers or underwriters on many of Australia’s recent significant transactions including Santos’ A$3 billion non-renounceable entitlement offer, Amcor Limited’s A$1.611 billion capital raising to fund the acquisition of Rio Tinto’s Alcan packaging unit, Warburg Pincus’ investment in Transpacific Industries Group as part of the Group’s A$800 million capital raising and Elders Limited on its complex and multi-faceted recapitalisation, asset sales and other transactions valued at close to A$1 billion.
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