Mallesons Stephen Jaques has acted for Primary Health Care Limited on the first retail bond offer to be made under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC) new class order.

ASIC's new rules facilitate the issue of listed bonds by reducing the disclosure burden on eligible issuers.

Primary Health Care is seeking to raise approximately $125 million under the offer and the funds raised will be used to repay part of Primary's existing debt, which will lengthen its overall debt maturity profile and diversify its funding sources.

The Mallesons team included partners David Eliakim, David Friedlander and Phil Harvey, with senior associate Jonathan Grant and solicitors John Eagleton and Hoda Nahlous.

Eliakim said of the offer: "It is exciting to see the new regulatory arrangements for retail bond offers being used for the first time. The new rules are designed to make the bond issuance process simpler and quicker and our experience on this transaction was that the new rules work well. We expect that a number of other corporates will consider retail bond issuance in light of this deal."

Freehills acted as joint lead managers on the offer, with the team being led by partner Philippa Stone, in conjunction with senior associate Faith Sing and lawyer Kenneth Stanton.

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