Current practice
Martin is an experienced international corporate lawyer with extensive experience in all areas of corporate and commercial practice. Martin practices mainly in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and corporate advisory. He also regularly advises clients on a range of Corporations Act, securities and ASX Listing Rules issues.
Experience
Martin acts for a number of clients involved in the fast moving consumer goods industry including Cadbury, Metcash, Associated British Foods, George Weston Foods, Garmin, Diageo and Reebok. Other clients Martin acts, and has acted for, include National Australia Bank, Macquarie Bank, JP Morgan, Australian Capital Equity, Seven Network, Lend Lease Corporation and Promina.
Some of the transactions Martin has been involved in include acting for:
- Cadbury, in relation to the divestment of its Australian business (including the Schweppes, Pepsi, Gatorade and Cottee’s brands) to Asahi
- Associated British Foods in relation to the restructuring and refinancing of the George Weston Group
- Metcash in connection with the acquisition of a controlling stake in the Mitre 10 Group through interconditional schemes of arrangement
- George Weston Foods in relation to the acquisition of the KR Castlemaine foods business and its manufacturing operations
- Metcash in connection with schemes of arrangement to restructure its capital base, the acquisition of Foodland, the equity capital raisings in that connection and the demerger and transfer schemes to transfer Foodland Australia and Foodland New Zealand to Metcash and Woolworths respectively
- NRMA and James Fielding in relation to the joint acquisition of the Travelodge Group of hotels
- MLC Investments and leading private equity fund managers in relation to various investment and buy-out transactions
- Associated British Foods in relation to the selective reduction of capital and the buy-out of the minority in George Weston Foods
- Guinness in relation to the merger with Grand Metropolitan plc
- National Westminster Bank in relation to the sale of the County investment management business to National Australia Bank and the sale of the County investment bank to Salomon Smith Barney
- Bankers Trust in relation to the sale of its Master Custody Business to Chase Manhattan Bank
- Bulmer plc in relation to the sale of its Australian business to Fosters
- Burger King in relation to the disposal and licensing of its Australian operations, and
- Reebok in relation to the acquisition and disposal of various brands.
Professional background
Prior to joining Freehills in 1997, Martin practised corporate law in the City of London for over 10 years where he became a partner at Addleshaw Goddard.
Martin is recognised as a leading Corporate M&A Lawyer in the international benchmarking publication PLC Which Lawyer?.
