Herbert Smith Freehills has maintained its position as the powerhouse in Australian M&A, topping three M&A legal advisor M&A leagues tables by both deal volume and total deal value for Q3 2018.

The firm ranked:

• 1st by deal count and 1st by deal value in completed deals for Australia and New Zealand (Thomson Reuters)
• 1st by deal count in announced deals for Australia and New Zealand (Thomson Reuters)
• 1st by deal count and 1st by deal volume in announced deals for Australia and New Zealand (Bloomberg)
• 1st by deal count and 1st by deal value for Australasia (Mergermarket)

Commenting on the firm’s performance, Brisbane corporate M&A partner Matthew FitzGerald, said: “Our deep sector expertise and market-leading M&A capability sees clients regularly entrust us with their most challenging and innovative M&A transactions. We’re grateful to all of our clients for giving us the opportunity to collaborate with them on these exciting deals.”

According to Thomson Reuters, announced M&A transactions with Australian involvement increased by 75%, accumulating US$120.4 billion in value compared to the first nine months of 2017. This is the highest first nine months period since 2011.

Mr FitzGerald said: “To date in 2018, we have seen high levels of M&A in Australia driven by a number of factors including non-core divestments by large corporates, strong private equity activity and significant infrastructure and energy & resources M&A.”

“We envision a strong finish to the 2018 calendar year for M&A with heightened activity from private equity sponsors and significant M&A in health, energy & resources and financial services.”

Herbert Smith Freehills acted for many of Australia’s largest and most complex deals in the first nine months of 2018, including advising:

• Amcor on its US$6.8 billion acquisition of Bemis
• Santos Limited on its A$2.15 billion acquisition of Quadrant Energy
• TPG Telecom Limited on its A$15 billion merger of equals transaction with Vodafone via a scheme of arrangement.
• Suncorp on the sale of its life insurance business to Japan’s Dai-ichi Life for A$725 million.