Minters’ role included advising on the structure of the consortium, the tender documents, the tender strategy, the structure of the proposed financing and all agreements with the hotel operator.

Sam Farrands, Minter Ellison Hong Kong’s managing partner, led the firm’s team advising Dragages and Shun Tak over the two-year bid process.

Given the novelty of PPPs in Hong Kong, he said the “government was certainly feeling its way on how it wanted to approach the project”.

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It is also “probably” one of the first times a PPP has been used to construct a hotel, said Farrands.

“So [each] bidder … had to be very creative and very nimble in the way in which it approached the bid because the needs of the government and the way in which it was approached was changing on a regular basis.”

At the same time, the airport and its surrounds is undergoing a lot of development, and includes a convention and exhibition centre and a shopping centre.

“There’s a lot going on there. It’s not like Sydney or Melbourne Airport,” he said. “The PPP is located at the airport and therefore had to take into account the different needs of a rapidly developing airport area.”

That put a number of challenges on the project and how the PPP could be best developed in order to complement the other very different facilities at the airport, rather than detract from them.

Farrands was supported by partners Elisabeth Ellis and Fred Kinmonth, and senior associates Tim Burbury and Brett Cameron in Hong Kong, as well as partner Fred Tinsley and special counsel Roger Perrins in Melbourne.