David Friedlander is King & Wood Mallesons' Chairman in Australia and a partner in our Melbourne and Sydney offices.
He is recognised as a market leading practitioner in M&A by global legal directories, including Chambers Global and The Australian Financial Review. He is consistently ranked Band 1 in Chambers and Partners (Corporate/M&A and Capital Markets) and is also in the Legal500 Hall of Fame for both Corporate M&A and Capital Markets.
David regularly acts for both bidders and targets in takeovers and issuers and underwriters in securities offerings. He has also worked on the defence side of several high-profile shareholder activist campaigns. He is a member of several key corporate law bodies and a former member of the Australian Takeovers Panel.
David is integral to the firm's growth in Asia Pacific spending time working closely with our Hong Kong, Singapore and China teams and is a member of the International Management Committee of the firm.
David is also Chairman of the Public Education Foundation, a director of Sydney Dance Company and a panel member of Adara Partners.
David’s deal experience includes:
- Altium takeover : representing Altium on its acquisition by scheme of arrangement by Renesas Electronics (David also worked on Altium’s IPO in the 1990’s)
- Auckland Airport: acting as Australian legal counsel for Auckland Airport on its major 2020 and 2024 capital raisings
- The Star capital raisings: acting for The Star on its major 2023 capital raisings
- Pendal: merger by scheme of arrangement with Perpetual
- Afterpay takeover: acting for Block Inc in connection with its merger by scheme of arrangement with Afterpay and listing on ASX
- BHP Petroleum acquisition: acting for Woodside on its acquisition of BHP Petroleum, share issue to BHP shareholders and listings on NYSE and LSE
- Life Healthcare acquisition: acting for EBOS on the Australian equity capital raising to support its acquisition of Life Healthcare from PEP
- Crown proposal: acting for The Star Entertainment Group on its proposed merger with Crown Resorts
- ME Bank acquisition: acting for Bank of Queensland on the acquisition of ME Bank and associated equity capital raising
- AMP: acting on AMP’s response to an approach by Ares Management and the AMP portfolio review 2020/2021
- Endeavour Drinks Group demerger: acting for Endeavour on its demerger from Woolworths
- Altium: advising Altium in relation to its response to a takeover approach from Autodesk
- Latitude: acting for Latitude on its IPO
- Qantas recovery capitalisation: representing Qantas on its $1.86b placement and share purchase plan in response to COVID-19 impacts on the airline industry
- Regis Resources: acquisition of interest in the Tropicana Gold Project and associated equity capital raising
- National Storage takeover: representing Public Storage on its proposed takeover by scheme of arrangement
- Flight Centre, Lendlease, Oil Search, Sydney Airport and Auckland Airport equity capital raisings during COVID-19 crisis
- Healius: on its takeover response to Partners’ Group
- Campbell's: on its sale of Arnott's to KKR
- United Malt Group: on its demerger form Graincorp
- Fairfax: on its merger by scheme of arrangement with Nine Entertainment
- Ramsay Health Care block trade: acting for the Paul Ramsay Foundation
- Yancoal shareholder Yangzhou and its parent, state owned enterprise, Yankuang: on the A$3.1b acquisition of Coal & Allied from Rio Tinto
- Brickworks: representing Brickworks on its shareholder activist response and litigation
- Fairfax: representing the board in response to activism by Hancock
- Hubei Humanwell Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd: acquisition of Ansell's sexual wellness business
- Masters: advising Woolworths on its exit from the joint venture with Lowe’s Companies, Inc., which operated the Masters Home Improvement and Home Timber & Hardware businesses
- Boart Longyear: advising on its equity and debt restructure
- South32: on its demerger from BHP, representing South32 and its board
- Medibank Private: representing Medibank on its IPO
- Novomatics: on its acquisition of a majority stake in Ainsworth Game Technology
- Chevron: on its 50% block trade sell-down in Caltex Australia
- Dexus/CPPIB CPA takeover: representing the bidders on the CPA takeover
- IAG: on its strategic relationship with Berkshire Hathaway, including an equity investment and quota share
- Genesis: advising on its IPO, Australian offering and ASX listing
- Fonterra Shareholders Fund: on its IPO, Australian offering and ASX listing
- Mighty River Power: on its IPO, Australian offering and ASX listing
- Dulux Group: representing Alesco in its takeover defence
- Macarthur Coal: representing ArcelorMittal on its joint takeover
- Aurizon IPO: representing the issuer and its board
- IAG: on its response to the QBE merger proposal
- Primary Health Care (now Healius): on its successful bid for Symbion Health and capital raisings
- Palmary Enterprises: bid for Consolidated Minerals
- Australian Stock Exchange (ASX): advising on its initial listing
- Australian Stock Exchange/Sydney Futures Exchange merger
- NRMA: advising on its demutualisation and listing (now IAG)
- Macquarie/TPG-led bid for Qantas
- DUET: advising on AMP Henderson/Alinta/United Energy restructure
- Campbells: advising on its takeover offer for Arnott’s
- Sydney Airport: advising on its privatisation
