Current practice

Baden practises in the fields of public company takeovers, privatisations, industry reforms, negotiated sales and acquisitions, joint ventures and general corporate law.

Industry experience

He has worked on a number of takeovers, including the Pasminco takeover of Savage Resources, the Wesfarmers follow-on takeover of IAMA (after Wesfarmers acquired 60% of IAMA through a shareholder approved merger of IAMA end Wesfarmers' Dalgety business) and Smorgon Steel's takeover of Email (including the initial cash/converting appliance share bid, the subsequent all-cash bid and the joint bidding arrangements between Smorgon and OneSteel).

Baden also has substantial experience in the energy industry, having been involved in:

• the disaggregation of the Victoria electricity industry, the privatisation (by way of trade sale) of a number of the electricity companies and other Victorian electricity work, including regulatory and legislative advice to the Victorian government
• electricity reforms in Tasmania, including the restructuring of the Hydro-Electric Corporation and the establishment of a new regulatory regime
• acting for National Grid on the proposed Basslink transmission link between Tasmania and Victoria.

Major acquisitions and sales on which Baden has worked include the sale of Coles Myer's credit card business to GE Capital, GE Capital's acquisition of Avco Financial Services and the sales by Pasminco of its coal assets and its 49 per cent interest in the Ernest Henry copper/gold mine.

He also has experience in asset sales and acquisitions, joint ventures, trade practices advice (particularly in relation to section 50) and general corporate law advice.

Baden worked on the initial Telstra float, in relation to which Freehills advised the Commonwealth government.

Baden also spent five months in 1996 working with Freehills in Vietnam. During that time he acted for a global funds manager on establishing a Vietnam targeted investment fund and also worked on a major greenfield power project.

Professional background

Baden has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Laws degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne.