Current practice

Industry experience

Leveraged and Acquisition finance

Melita has worked on large scale transactions in the acquisition and leveraged finance area including acting for:

• Babcock & Brown on the leveraged financing of its joint bid with Singapore Power for the acquisition of Alinta Limited
• BOS International (Australia), The Royal Bank of Scotland and National Australia Bank on the US$815 million leveraged financing of Macquarie Bank’s acquisition of Dyno Nobel
• Newbridge Capital on financing aspects of its bid for Carter Holt Harvey
• Texas Pacific Group/Newbridge Capital on the A$1.4 billion leveraged financing of the Myer retail store business and Myer Melbourne
• Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co in relation to the leveraged financing of the A$4 billion media joint venture with Seven
• National Australia Bank on the financing of Macquarie’s acquisition of aged care facilities from the Salvation Army
• National Australia Bank on the $1 billion financing of Patrick Corporation’s takeover offer for Virgin Blue
• Metcash on the $1 billion financing for its acquisition of Foodland’s Australian wholesale grocery business and the related Metcash and Foodland schemes of arrangement
• Credit Suisse, HBOS and the syndicate lenders on the $370 million financing of the private equity acquisition of the Emeco Group
• National Australia Bank on the $90 million financing of the private equity acquisition of the Penrice Group and the refinancing in connection with the sale by Penrice of its salt field
• Burns Philp on the $3 billion leveraged financing of its takeover of Goodman Fielder
• Westpac on the $670 million leveraged financing of Visy’s acquisition of the Southcorp packaging assets
• Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI) on the leveraged financing of BBI’s acquisition of PD Ports
• BBI on several equity bridge financings including in connection with BBI’s acquisition of wind farms in Germany and Spain
• Prime Infrastructure on financing aspects of its bid for the acquisition of the Duke energy assets in Australia and New Zealand
• BOS International (Australia) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group on the $110 million leveraged financing of the CHAMP’s acquisition of Study Group.

Property finance

Melita has extensive property finance experience, having acting on significant acquisition, development and construction finance transactions including acting for:

• Commonwealth Bank of Australia on numerous property finance transactions including various residential and land bank developments, including Freshwater Place, Southbank Melbourne, Lidcombe, NSW, Point Cook, Victoria and the Park Hyatt Sydney.
• Lend Lease on number property construction financings including:
  • the Aurora Place residential and commercial development at Phillip Street, Sydney
  • the Forum West residential development in St Leonards, NSW
  • the Jacksons Landing residential development in Pyrmont, Sydney.
• Babcock & Brown Japan Trust on its ¥8,500,000,000 financing of the acquisition of commercial properties in Japan
  corporate finance.

Melita has acted for both borrowers and lenders on numerous large and complex corporate finance transactions including acting for:

• Babcock & Brown Infrastructure in relation to its $300 million finance facilities with a syndicate of lenders, refinancing and additional NZD$125 million and NZD$150 million facilities and secured bond issues
• Lend Lease in relation to its £550 million syndicated bridge finance facilities arranged by Barclays Capital
• National Australia Bank in relation to IPO finance facilities provided to Penrice in connection with the float of Penrice Holdings
• BOS International (Australia) Limited in relation to corporate finance facilities provided to Austcorp
• TAB Limited on its bilateral debt facilities with ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac
• DBCT in relation to its A$680 million credit wrapped bond issue to refinance existing bank debt
• DBCT in relation to its A$290 million credit wrapped bank debt and A$200 million credit wrapped bond issue for financing its expansion of the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal
• issuers on a number of capital markets transactions including advising on the issue of $325 million secured bonds to acquire a major commercial and retail shopping centre in Singapore
• various counterparties including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, BOS International (Australia) Limited, The Royal Bank of Scotland, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corporation and Lend Lease Corporation, advising and negotiating various swap and derivative transactions involving both standard ISDA and individually drafted master documentation.

Professional background

Melita holds Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degrees from the University of Sydney.