The fund’s market capitalisation upon listing was in excess of $130 million.

Partner Andrew Shearwood, Richard McMullan and Jeremy Wickens led the Freehills team. McMullan said Freehills assisted the client through the entire IPO process from beginning to end. This included advising on the product disclosure statement and the pre-IPO restructuring of the fund’s constitution, registering the fund with ASIC and assisting the client to establish its corporate governance and reporting policies.

“The fund’s investment strategy is different from other investment funds, in that one of [its] core investment strategies is to use convertible notes, with the objective of the fund having favourable participation in the equity upside of its investments, whilst providing [it] with downside risk protection together with regular income,” McMullan said.

“The IPO involved an additional element of legal complexity because the fund offered not only units but also options which were granted official quotation by the ASX alongside the fund’s units.”

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Freehills’ role included coordinating advice from foreign counsel in relation to making the offer in overseas jurisdictions. Kensington Swan in New Zealand, Ashursts in the United Kingdom and Johnson Stokes & Masters in Hong Kong provided advice in relation to the offer of securities into their respective jurisdictions.