Current practice
Jim is the senior partner in the Funds Management practice and has been a partner of the firm since 1971.
Jim has practised extensively in corporate and commercial areas, general insurance and life insurance businesses, trusts and initial public offerings.
In the area of listed and unlisted trusts, his work includes:
- initial public offerings
- other new issues including placements and rights issues, and
- mergers and acquisitions.
He has advised a number of major participants in the life insurance area on matters including:
- agency and distribution issues
- demutualisation and other restructuring issues
- acquisition of life companies, and
- statutory funds transactions.
Experience
Recent transactions include:
- the merger of the General Property Trust with the GEM Commercial Property Trust and the GEM Retail Property Trust (all listed trusts) which resulted in a $3 billion plus Property Trust. This transaction required among other things the issue of a prospectus by GPT and the issue of information memoranda by each of the three trusts
- the establishment and initial public offering of the Stadium Australia Trust created to construct the Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, the units in which have been stapled to shares in Stadium Australia Management Limited, the proposed operator of the trust
- the establishment and initial public offering of the Darling Park Trust, a trust created to acquire an interest in the existing Darling Park Development and to construct a further major office building on the site
- the establishment and initial public offering of the Leisure Wide Property Trust, promoted and managed by the Macquarie Bank Group, and
- the restructuring of Lloyd's of London Australian operations including the establishment of designated security trust funds for the purposes of the Insurance Act 1973 (Cth).
Professional background
He is a member of the national Board of Freehills. While most of his time has been spent in the Sydney office of the firm, Jim has also worked in the Perth and Jakarta offices. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Sydney and is a Fellow of the Securities Institute of Australia.
