Funds management is one of the most dynamic components of the Australian financial services industry. Freehills’ Funds Management team can provide you with commercially-aware legal advice for every aspect of your retail and wholesale funds management business. We are passionate about identifying and implementing the optimal legal structure for you in order to achieve your commercial objectives.

We act for Australia’s leading financial services companies and trusts. We act on some of the most strategic and high-profile projects in the areas of wholesale and retail funds management and we have been involved in many of the largest funds management deals during recent times. This means you can benefit from our extensive experience of complex and innovative transactions of all sizes.

Your commercial expertise will be complemented by our expertise on the legal and regulatory environment in which you and other fund managers do business, and you will have access to Freehills’ wide expertise in areas such as taxation, equity and capital markets, private equity and property. 

You will also have access to our extensive knowledge and intimate understanding of the funds management industry and the up-to-the-minute experience gained from representation on industry bodies.

We actively contribute to the formulation and development of industry policies and practice with representation on the Investment and Financial Services Association and the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia policy and drafting committees, industry liaison committees with government and regulators, including Australian Tax Office, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and representation at Senate Select Committee hearings.

Freehills is a market leader in the funds management area. This can be attributed to the number of talented partners who continue to receive praise for their innovative advice and dedication towards achieving client objectives and is evident in our lead ranking in international benchmarking publication PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook.

Freehills’ Funds Management team can help you with all aspects of wholesale and retail funds, having been involved at the cutting-edge of recent changes in the industry.

We can:

• help you establish new funds and launch new financial products
• advise on product offerings and assist with the preparation of offer documents
• provide you with advice on stapled and hybrid securities offerings
• guide you through the labyrinth of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), regulatory and listing rules requirements
• help you with restructures, mergers and acquisitions of funds and Chapter 6 takeovers.

We also understand performance fees and we can help you achieve the best possible tax and stamp duty outcomes by structuring your funds to maximise efficiency of stamp duty and tax holding structures.

We work with blue chip and boutique fund managers advising on:

• retail and wholesale funds
• structured products
• hedge funds
• property and infrastructure funds
• regulatory advice
• fund establishment and capital raising
• performance fee arrangements
• fund acquisition and disposals
• restructuring
• fund takeovers.

We have acted on many landmark funds management transactions during recent times. A small selection of our most recent work includes:

• Agribusiness – Freehills acts for a number of leading issuers of agribusiness managed investment schemes, including Great Southern and Integrating Tree Cropping. Investors invest in the growing of short or long term plantation timber, grown for sale as woodchips or appearance grade timber as well as organic olives, wine grapes and sandalwood trees. We are involved from the product design stage, through to the preparation of all legal documents and offer documents.
• Australian Pipeline Trust Limited renounceable rights issue – Freehills acted for Australian Pipeline Trust Limited on the A$355 million 2 for 7 renounceable rights issue of units in the Australian Pipeline Trust (APT). The rights issue was conducted to enable APT to reduce gearing and fund future acquisitions. Simultaneously with the rights issue, Freehills also acted on the issue of units in the APT Investment Trust (APTIT), the stapling of those units to APT units and the listing of the resulting stapled security on ASX.
  
  The legal issues involved an extremely tight timetable, the contemplation of a debt restructuring and the production of a joint product disclosure statement for both APT and APTIT while taking into account a number of takeovers and competition issues due to APT being involved in action with a major unitholder in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Takeovers Panel and Federal Court.
• Citi – We act for Citigroup Global Markets Australia in relation to its various Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) quoted warrant issues and its structured products which utilise a deferred purchase agreement structure. 
• Colonial First State Property – We acted on the creation of the listed Commonwealth Property Office Fund and subsequent capital raisings and on-market buy backs. We also advised on the merger of parts of the listed Colonial First State Retail Property Trust group into the Commonwealth Property Office fund and CFS Property Trust and on the creation of a number of wholesale property funds.
• Credit Suisse – Freehills has advised Credit Suisse in relation to the structure and launch of a number of its retail and wholesale funds, including the Credit Suisse Global Private Equity Fund , the Credit Suisse / Tremont Index Strategies Fund and an offer of Credit Suisse Premier Managers II Private Equity Instalment Notes. These funds were tailored and innovative structures designed to provide investors with exposure to private equity investments and a hedge fund index.
• Deutsche Bank AG – Freehills acted for Deutsche Bank AG in relation to the structuring and launch of three Xenon Alpha Plus funds. These funds were Deutsche Bank’s first retail hedge fund offerings in Australia and they were structured to provide investors with leveraged exposure to the performance of two international funds of hedge funds.
• DEXUS Group – We have acted for DEXUS in relation to a wide variety of fund management matters including its acquisitions of a fund manager, a property management business and Deutsche Bank AG’s 50% interest in the holding company for the responsible entity of the DEXUS Group in February 2008. We acted on the restructure and stapling proposal for the DEXUS group to created a quadruple stapled listed property trust and on the creation of the DEXUS RENTS Trust and its offer of hybrid securities.
• Everest Babcock & Brown – Freehills advised Everest Babcock & Brown in relation to a capital raising, seeking A$500 million to increase Everest Babcock & Brown’s Alternative Investment Trust’s exposure to a group of leading international absolute return funds, establishing new funds in Australia and offshore, and the total return swaps in respect of those funds. 
• Investa – we acted on the establishment of the Investa Property Group and have advised Investa on the creation and launch of a number of retail and wholesale property funds, mergers, acquisitions and restructures.
• Investment fund establishment – Freehills is currently acting as lead/international counsel for a leading Australian corporation on the establishment and listing on the Singapore Exchange Ltd of a new hedge investment fund.
• Lend Lease – Lend Lease on the establishment of its Core Plus stapled wholesale property funds and on the establishment of the Lend Lease Communities Fund, which is the first wholesale property fund investing in land and on residential subdivision and sale.
• Leading global asset management – We are currently acting for a leading global asset management company in relation to the establishment and launch of a structured product.
• Permanent Investment Management Ltd – We have acted for Permanent in relation to several initial public offerings (IPOs) where Permanent has been appointed to act as the responsible entity of a new trust established by a third party. For example, we have acted for Permanent in relation to its roles as the responsible entities of the PaperlinX SPS Trust and the Dyno Nobel SPS Trust, each of  which raised A$300 million in an offer of hybrid securities quoted on the ASX. The PaperlinX SPS Trust IPO was a particularly challenging transaction because of the aggressive timetable to bring the product to market.
• S-REIT – A leading fund manager in relation to the establishment of a proposed listed property trust (S-REIT) in Singapore and a Pan-Asia wholesale unlisted S-REIT.

We work with blue chip and boutique fund managers across a range of asset classes including property, infrastructure, agriculture, financial products and private equity.

Our clients include: