Deal: Sydney Airport (SYD) has moved to acquire the 15.2 per cent of Sydney Airport that it does not currently own from a group of minority investors

Area: M&A

Value: $1.2 billion

Key players: Partner Julian Donnan (pictured) led the Allens team, with assistance from partners Larry Magid, Paul Nicols and Tom Highnam and lawyer Jonathan Dillon

Deal significance: The group of minority investors involved in this deal included Future Fund, Hochtief and UniSuper. According to Allens’ lead partner Julian Donnan, the structuring of the deal ensures that SYD’s 38,000 existing investors will continue to have the same level of economic interest in Sydney Airport. Concurrent with this deal, SYD informed the market that it had reached in-principle terms with the ATO to settle all matters concerning deductibility of distributions paid on SYD Redeemable Preference Shares. “SYD also submitted a number of applications to the ATO that were related to further simplification of its corporate structure, which it intends to address later this year,” Donnan said. “This was a strategic transaction by our client, which had a high degree of difficulty due to the number of parties involved, the capital raising aspects, an ATO settlement, and the potential to further simplify SYD’s existing structure.”

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