Current practice

Fiona Smedley is a member of Freehills’ Funds Management group and joined the Sydney office of Freehills in 1998.  

Fiona has a funds management and corporate practice which includes:

• public offerings by retail and wholesale funds and companies, including listed and unlisted IPOs, product disclosure statements and prospectuses, placements and underwritings   
• structuring and establishing wholesale and retail funds, including property trusts, feeder funds, funds offering hybrid securities and various structured products, including hedge funds and warrants   
• listed and private acquisitions and disposals including privatisations, schemes of arrangement and trust schemes  
• capital management including shareholder agreements, capital reductions, redemptions and reorganisations  
• general funds management matters including advice in relation to trust deeds, stapling, entrenchment, registry agreements and other outsourcing and supply agreements, and  
• general corporate and commercial matters including advice in relation to trust law and contracts law and general Corporations Act and ASX listing rules advice.  

Industry experience

Major projects

Fiona has advised a number of international and Australian clients, including:

• Credit Suisse in relation to structuring, and the offer documentation for, a number of new Credit Suisse funds, including a limited partnership fund offering private equity exposure to wholesale investors, a retail private equity fund and a retail hedge fund index tracker fund
• Citi and Macquarie on the underwriting of the Goodman PLUS hybrid offer which raised $325 million in December 2007
• Trust Company in connection with its roles as trustee or responsible entity in relation to many trusts, including the PaperlinX and Dyno Nobel hybrid trusts, each of which raised $300 million in 2007
• DEXUS on its capital raising and funds management activities and various acquisitions, including  to its acquisition of Deutsche Bank’s 50 per cent interest in the DEXUS management company, DEXUS Funds Management Ltd
• Citi in relation to its range of structured products and listed warrants
• Deutsche Bank AG on the Xenon Alpha series of hedge funds, and
• United Group Ltd on its acquisition of the ALSTOM transport businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

Major clients

Fiona’s clients include:

Professional background

Fiona holds a degree in law from the University of Nottingham, England and a Master of Laws from the University of New South Wales.

Fiona participates in the firm’s pro bono program.

Before joining Freehills, Fiona worked in London and gained several years of English capital markets and mergers & acquisitions experience.