Herbert Smith Freehills is pleased to have advised Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) on the merger of Aussie Home Loans (Aussie) with Lendi, a leading online home loan platform.
The merger has brought together Aussie’s significant network, strong brand and deep experience in supporting customers with their property goals, and Lendi’s leading technology and platform.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by partners Tony Damian and Adam Strauss and supported by lawyers across a range of practice groups in the firm’s Sydney office.
This included M&A senior associate Stacia Super and solicitor Benedict Cheung; private equity partner Clayton James and senior associate Li-Lian Yeo; banking regulatory partner Charlotte Henry and solicitors David Curley and Anjelica Balis, assisted by corporate senior associate Dan Johnson and George Psaltis; technology partner Kwok Tang and solicitor Mark Khouri; funds partner Rob Bileckij and solicitors Georgia Allen and Sam Saunders; and IP special counsel Amalia Stone.
Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills, led by partners Andrew Hirst and Ryan Leslie, advised on the tax aspects of this transaction.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team worked closely with CBA’s M&A legal team, particularly Senior Legal Counsels Kirsty Cox, Will House and Simon Craddock, as led by Mark Alexander, General Manager, Corporate and Treasury Legal.
Tony Damian, who is also co-chair of the Firm’s Global Banks Sector Group said, “It’s a great privilege for the team at Herbert Smith Freehills to assist our valued and long-standing client CBA on another important milestone.”
Adam Strauss said, “The transaction brought together a team across a range of areas of the Firm – from M&A and private equity to IT and IP and regulatory as well.”
The deal is another example of Herbert Smith Freehills’ market-leading work in assisting valued client CBA to achieve its commercial goals. The firm also advised the bank on the sale of:
- Colonial First State Global Asset Management (now known as First Sentier Investors) to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation for A$4.2 billion;
- its Australian and New Zealand life insurance business to AIA; and
- its financial advice business Count Financial to CUP.
