Deal: Gilbert + Tobin has advised BrickX on its replacement of a third-party responsible entity and trustee with a licensed BrickX entity.

Value: Undisclosed

Area: Corporate, Technology

Key players: Gilbert + Tobin’s team was led by corporate advisory partner and head of financial services and fintech practice Peter Reeves. Financial services and fintech lawyers Georgina Willcock and Marcus Wong assisted.

Deal significance: The BrickX Platform is an online platform that facilitates the acquisition and disposal of indirect interests in residential investment property by members, according to Gilbert + Tobin.

Each residential investment property is held in a BrickX trust, the firm said, in a unit which is referred to as a Brick.

Since its 2016 launch, it was noted that a professional third-party entity and trustee has been responsible for operating the scheme.

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Gilbert + Tobin noted that in late 2017 BrickX had commenced the process of varying its existing Australian financial services licence with a view to operating the platform itself.

As a result, the firm aided BrickX in making preparations to take over the responsible entity and trustee roles in 2018, subject to member approval.

Gilbert + Tobin’s team advised on a largely online meeting process for the 14,000-plus scheme members for the change of responsible entity and trustee approval process.

Lead partner Mr Reeves believed the team’s extensive expertise across regulation and considerable experience in advising on digital platforms “was invaluable” in helping BrickX achieve the ‘crucial’ milestone.

“An important part of our role was to solve for the challenges of holding a meeting of over 14,000 members of an exclusively online platform,” Mr Reeves noted.

His understanding is that the solution was a “first of its kind” meeting process for an online platform of BrickX’s size and structure.

“We were excited to work with BrickX on this next phase of the platform,” he commented.