He acts for non-bank lenders, senior bank syndicates, mezzanine lenders, underwriters, offshore purchasers and private equity funds on Australian and cross-border acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and general corporate finance.
Stewart’s expertise also includes term loan B, Unitranche, first/second lien loans, syndicated and bilateral finance transactions across a wide range of industries; acquisition of distressed competitor assets; complex debt restructuring; property acquisition, development, construction and project funding; and onshore and offshore lending to REITs and property groups.
Amongst his headline deals are the restructuring of Greenlit Brands, acquisition funding for the divestment of Healthscope Limited's medical real estate as part of the Brookfield takeover, Oil Search Limited's self arranged syndicated facilities and acting for the syndicate of lenders to Cochlear Limited, SEEK Limited, THINK Limited, iiNet Limited and AWE Limited.
His leading client list includes Bain Capital, PEP, Affinity, Adamantem, Oil Search Limited, Barclays, Greenlit Brands, Investec, ANZ, CBA, NAB, and Westpac.
Stewart’s excellent track record is recognised by major legal directories with Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific naming him a leading lawyer for acquisition finance.
Career highlights
- Assisting the financiers in $2 billion of funding provided to a telecommunications entity.
- Working with Greenlit Pty Ltd (formerly known as Steinhoff Asia Pacific Group Holdings Pty Limited on its complex global restructure of its syndicated, bilateral and parent group financing arrangements (in excess of A$500 million). This involved detailed and highly structured cross border negotiations between 4 different sets of creditors and restructuring of the Group's intellectual property rights with off-shore counterparties. The transaction ultimately ensured the continued success of the Australian group (independent of its distressed parent group) whilst preserving thousands of domestic jobs with leading Australasian retail brands.
- Advising the lead arrangers on a circa A$1.4 billion cross border multicurrency syndicated facility to SEEK Limited, involving advice in Brazil, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore provided by a syndicate of 20 domestic and international banks. The refinancing was oversubscribed and was structured to include distinct US dollar longer term tranches to provide SEEK with greater flexibility and diversity in its capital structure.
