Overview
Freehills and our associated tax practice, Greenwoods & Freehills, are uniquely placed to assist clients to take advantage of this evolving area of law. Together, we offer seamless expertise across all Australian legal and tax areas.
Our team is at the forefront of the development of Islamic finance in the Australian market. Working together with clients and other key market participants, Freehills is investing significant resources to develop innovative approaches to accommodate Islamic finance in Australia. As thinking on Islamic finance continues to develop in Australia, Freehills is leading a solution-driven, rather than product-driven, approach. We believe that market confidence in the principles of Islamic Finance can be fortified by pursuing financing structures that embed existing fundamentals of Australian finance that are well understood by Australian market participants. It is the stability and reliability of the Australian legal system that reinforces Australia’s competitive advantage in offering opportunities for Islamic investors – our approach of building on this by developing solutions for existing Australian structures is our point of difference.
In addition to our focus on financing transactions, Freehills has a particular interest in developing Islamic finance in the areas of funds management and direct investment in Australia.
Experience
The Freehills team brings to the Australian market significant international Islamic finance experience. Members of our team have been involved in advising on some of the key sukuk transactions in the Middle East, for clients including GE, Sorouh Real Estate, Dubai Islamic Bank, Barclays Capital and the Government of Ras al-Khaimah (United Arab Emirates). Freehills also has experience advising Australian clients on structuring transactions in the Australian market to comply with the requirements of Islamic finance.
Freehills advises the Property Council of Australia on issues involving Islamic finance, including their submission to the Australian Financial Centre Forum and representations to Islamic finance trade delegations.
We are represented on the Islamic finance Working Groups of the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA) and the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA), and speak on Islamic finance matters at conferences and client seminars.
