Firms: MinterEllison (Ping An Real Estate); Herbert Smith Freehills (Lendlease); Clayton Utz (Mitsubishi Estate Asia)

Deal: Ping An Real Estate (PARE) has acquired a 50 per cent interest in a joint venture with Mitsubishi and Lendlease to develop a landmark tower at Circular Quay.

Value: Undisclosed

Area: M&A

Key players: The legal team advising PARE was led by MinterEllison partner Sophie Chen, with assistance from partner Wissam Abwi.

The other MinterEllison partners involved in the deal were David McElhone, Richard Crawford and Leigh De Jong.

The MinterEllison lawyers involved in the deal were Simon Cooper, Dimitri Kalis, Camilla Sinclair, Will Ma, Jonathan Chow, Benjamin Wu and Shira Saks.

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Deal significance: Established in 2010 in Shenzhen, PARE is the global real estate investment and asset management platform of Ping An, with assets under management over US$26 billion as of September 2016.

The acquisition of the Circular Quay development is the first commercial property investment by PARE in Australia.

According to MinterEllison partner Sophie Chen, this deal will reshape the Sydney skyline with the development of a landmark commercial office tower in one of the city's most prominent locations.

The deal represents the largest investment by PARE in Australia to date, and highlights the depth of Chinese confidence in the Australian economy and real estate sector. It also demonstrated the great willingness of Chinese companies to work with local and foreign partners on market-leading transactions in Australia, she said.

“We thoroughly enjoyed working with Ping An Real Estate to execute this joint venture, and could not have hoped for a better result,” Ms Chen said.

“Ping An Real Estate is a substantial institutional investor and asset manager firm with a growing presence in Australia, and their decision to make another significant investment in Sydney real estate shows the depth of their confidence in the sector and local economy more broadly.”