Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer tops M&A league tables for H1 2025

Leading global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (HSF Kramer) has retained its status as the leading legal adviser in Australian mergers and acquisitions, topping two league tables for H1 2025.

The firm ranked:

• 1st by deal volume and 2nd by deal value – Australia/New Zealand (completed) and 1st by deal value and 2nd by deal volume (announced) – Australia/New Zealand (LSEG)
• 1st by deal value and 4th by deal volume – Australasia (Mergermarket)

HSF Kramer has been advising on the largest and most complex M&A deals announced in the market in H1 2025:

• Santos on its AU$30 billion proposed acquisition by a consortium led by XRG, ADQ and The Caryle Group by way of a scheme of arrangement
• Scape Operations Ltd on its proposed bid for Aveo Group from Brookfield
• Gold Fields on its proposed AU$3.7 billion acquisition of up to 100% of the shares of Gold Road Resources
• WiseTech Global on its proposed A$3.2 billion acquisition of 100% of E2open
• Ki Corp on its A$1.9 billion joint approach with Public Storage for the acquisition of Abacus Storage King

The team has also advised:

• Chemist Warehouse on its AU$34 billion merger with Sigma Healthcare
• Weir on its AU$1.35 billion (£657 million) acquisition of mining software provider, Micromine
• The Carlyle Group Inc. on its acquisition of Waste Services Group
• Adamantem Capital on its acquisition of Mason Stevens
• Healius Limited on the sale of Lumus Imaging to Affinity Equity Partners for AU$965 million

Andrew Rich, Corporate M&A partner, said, “After a sluggish start, the first half of the year ended up proving to be quite a busy time for M&A, and we expect that activity will ramp up throughout the rest of 2025. We look forward to continuing to work with our clients on some very interesting transactions during the second half of the year."

Matthew FitzGerald, Managing Partner of HSF Kramer’s Corporate Practice in Australia and Asia, added, “It has been very pleasing to see the resilience of the Australian M&A market despite challenging global conditions. We are delighted to have partnered with our clients on a number of the landmark M&A deals this year highlighting the strength of our market-leading M&A practice.”

HSF Kramer is the leading firm for complex public and private M&A transactions.

Our team is ranked Band 1 for M&A in Asia Pacific (Chambers Global Guide 2025), with partners Philippa Stone, Rebecca Maslen-Stannage, Baden Furphy, and Rodd Levy also individually ranked Band 1, Corporate M&A (Chambers Australia 2025).