Recognised as the largest hotel purchase in Australia this year, the acquisition is GIC’s third hotel purchase in Australia, after The Westin and Shangri-La (formerly the ANA) Hotels in Sydney in 2002. GIC sees the purchase of this exclusive asset as an entrée to the Melbourne market and the achievement of yet another milestone for its investment strategy in Australian property assets.

The Minter Ellison team also included Lindsey Joffe, Georgina Lyons and David King.

Arnold Bloch Leibler acted for Park Hyatt Hotel.

Baker & McKenzie’s correspondent law firm in Malaysia, Wong & Partners, is advising SKS Power Sdn Bhd in its plan to develop a 2,100 megawatt coal-fired power plant in the southern Malaysian state of Johor to supply electricity to state utility giant Tenaga Nasional Berhad.

The Tanjung Bin power station will comprise three units of 700 megawatts (MW) each. The first is expected to be operational by August 2006 and the other two should be completed in the following year.

SKS Power Sdn Bhd is expected to issue RM5 ($2) billion in bonds — Malaysia’s largest ringgit bond issue this year — to help finance the plant’s construction.

SKS Power Sdn Bhd has recently awarded a three-company consortium led by the Sumitomo Corporation with a US$1.5 ($2.3) billion contract to build the generator coal-fired power plant, transmission works and related facilities. The project is the largest IPP coal-fired power plant in Asia.

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The banking, finance and major projects team of the Malaysian correspondent law firm of Baker & McKenzie in Kuala Lumpur is being led by partner Christopher Lee.