Herbert Smith Freehills tops 2023 Australian M&A league tables

Herbert Smith Freehills has secured its status as the leading legal adviser in Australian mergers and acquisitions, topping three different M&A league tables after acting on more deals than any other firm during the 2023 calendar year.

The firm ranked: 

• 1st by deal count and 1st by value of announced AU/NZ deals (Refinitiv)
• 1st by deal count in announced AU/NZ deals (Bloomberg)
• 1st by deal count and 1st by deal value of Australasian deals (Mergermarket)

Commenting on the firm’s performance, Herbert Smith Freehills corporate M&A partner Andrew Rich, said, “2023 proved to be a much more active M&A market that many were expecting. We are very grateful to our wonderful clients for entrusting us with their deals and helping us to secure our position as Australia’s leading legal adviser. We can see another very busy year ahead in 2024.” 

Herbert Smith Freehills acted on many of Australia’s largest and most complex M&A deals in 2023, including advising:

• Allegro Funds on its acquisition of PwC’s government consulting business (Scyne Advisory)
• Blackmores on its A$1.85 billion acquisition by Kirin Holdings
• Chemist Warehouse on its proposed A$8.8 billion merger with Sigma Healthcare 
• Link Group on its proposed A$2.2 billion (EV) acquisition by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corporation
• Newcrest on its A$26.2 billion acquisition by Newmont Corporation 
• Origin Energy on the proposed A$18.7 billion acquisition by Brookfield and EIG
• Perpetual on the strategic review of its Corporate Trust and Wealth Management business and on the A$2.7 billion indicative proposal from Washington H. Soul Pattinson
• Santos in its preliminary discussions with Woodside regarding a potential A$80 billion merger