KWM, led by our Infrastructure leader Mark Upfold, has advised a consortium comprising China Merchants and Australia’s Hastings Fund Management on their successful bid for the long-term lease of the Port of Newcastle following a highly competitive five-month auction process. Hastings’ investment is being made by The Private Capital Group’s The Infrastructure Fund which is managed by Hastings.

The Port of Newcastle lease is the latest in a series of successful New South Wales asset recycling projects on which KWM’s Infrastructure team has advised, including the $5.1 billion privatisation of Port Botany and Port Kembla and the $2.3bn Sydney Desalination Plant where KWM acted for the State of NSW.

Mark Upfold said, “What was extremely pleasing for us on the Port of Newcastle transaction was the demonstration of the strength of our partnership with the Hastings team. This followed on from our work with them on their bid for Port Botany and Port Kembla; it put us in great shape to help produce an attractive bid for New South Wales given that our team was fully across ports and privatisations. This gave us and the consortium a genuine head start. The addition of China Merchants to the team created a powerful consortium and was in perfect alignment with our China strategy.

“I must give a shout out to our infrastructure and project finance teams who, in the space of 6 days (including the Anzac Day weekend), managed to execute two winning bids on Australia’s biggest infrastructure transactions.”

The Port of Newcastle win comes at a busy time for King & Wood Mallesons infrastructure and project finance teams who have, in the space of 6 days, acted on the winning advisory roles on the $7bn acquisition of Queensland Motorways, the $1.75bn Port of Newcastle privatisation, closing of an Australian infrastructure financing and lodging a final bid for a short listed bidder on the Victorian East West Link PPP.