International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan , the largest single-profession pension plan in Canada with over C$100 billion in assets, on its acquisition of MAp’s interests in Brussels and Copenhagen airports in return for a sale by Teachers’ to MAp of its interests in Sydney airport and a balancing payment of approximately A$790 million.

Commenting on the deal, corporate partner Laurie McFadden, who led the transaction for Freshfields out of London, said: ‘We are delighted to have advised Teachers on this complex deal which has involved a large cross-practice team from Freshfields, principally in London and Brussels. The intricacies of acquiring joint venture interests in two significant European airports (one of which is listed) and selling Teachers’ interest in Sydney airport at the same time required careful structuring and gave us the opportunity to demonstrate both our capabilities and our considerable experience of complicated infrastructure deals.’ 

The Freshfields team worked closely with Teachers’ deal team and in particular Kevin Kerr, Charles Thomazi and Greg Grant and legal counsel Tara Rosenblatt. The Freshfields team also included London corporate partners Farah Ispahani and Vanessa Knapp and Brussels corporate partners Charles-Antoine Leunen and Chris Sunt as well as regulatory partner Alan Ryan. London-based partners Annette Byron, Peter Hall and Colin Hargreaves advised on the real estate, finance and tax aspects of the transaction respectively. 

Each of the key transaction workstreams was headed by one of London senior associates Nigel Gleeson, Michael Hilton and Richard Thexton, assisted by London associates Tim Redman, Tim Cardiff, Ben Harding, Luke Holland and Chris Kane along with Alex Robb on the finance side, Jean Ng on tax and Kathryn Simms on real estate matters. The team also worked closely with Brussels corporate associate Emilie van De Walle De Ghelcke and regulatory associate Anneleen Straetemans, as well as with Australian counsel, Atanaskovic Hartnell, Canadian counsel, Torys, Danish counsel, Bech Brun, and Luxembourg counsel, Loyens & Loeff.