On 31 May 2013, the New South Wales Government announced financial close of its refinancing and long-term lease of Port Botany and Port Kembla, two of Australia's largest bulk and container terminals.

Following an eight-month competitive bidding process, the port operator entities, together with 99-year leases of the port land, were acquired by the NSW Ports Consortium, for a total of A$5.07 billion.

The Government described the transaction as "historic" and the outcome as "a truly amazing result" - it delivered the highest net proceeds ever received by a NSW Government on behalf of the people of NSW.

A high-powered MinterEllison team advised the Government throughout the complex deal. The team was led by some of our firm's most experienced M&A and major projects partners: Andrew Rentoul (Infrastructure / M&A), Costas Condoleon (M&A), Virginia Briggs (Government Assets), Mark Standen (Financial Services).

The outcome - an extraordinary 25 x EBITDA in a market still affected by global post-GFC uncertainty - reflected the legal and commercial effort, and the expertise, that went into structuring the transaction, packaging the assets and negotiating the transaction documents.

Our team drew on their extensive personal experience from the refinancing of other government infrastructure around Australia, including Port of Brisbane, Abbot Point Coal Terminal, Cairns Airport, Mackay Airport, Dalrymple Bay Coal terminal and extensive operational experience with Port Botany and Port of Melbourne.

The team set a new benchmark for delivery of a transaction of this scale - delivering all facets of the deal on time, with no changes to the process or timetable and no reversals. In the final stages, we moved from selection of successful bidder to execution of extensive binding transaction documents in just three days.