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M&A firm eyes real estate space
One M&A firm has made a strategic real estate hire as part of a major expansion.
Samantha Woodhill
Specialist mid-market M&A firm Clarendon Lawyers has appointed a dedicated real estate director as part of its expansion strategy, which has seen the firm add three directors in just five months.
Sitting comfortably in the mid-market M&A and equity capital markets (ECM) space, Clarendon is far from a traditional full-service firm. But a number of recent appointments have seen it branch out into offerings complementary to its existing practice areas.
“We act for a lot of retailers,” managing director Tony Symons told Lawyers Weekly.
“When private equity buys into a retailer, the way that they expand or grow the business is by opening up more stores … We have helped a lot of retail chains with this process and place great value on this relationship work. We want to be able to maintain that relationship and assist them through that growth phase. That means that we understand their business intimately and we’re then well positioned when there’s another transaction that occurs.”
Formerly a director with the property team at Gadens, Mike Steell has joined Clarendon Lawyers, closely following the appointment of ECM expert Nick Golding in July and private equity and venture capital specialist Alex Bean in August.
“This firm has the bench strength and quality of expertise to deliver exceptional client outcomes, regardless of the size or complexity of the transaction,” Mr Steell said.
While Mr Symons indicated that Clarendon will be reasonably quiet on the expansion front next year, he said that having a real estate specialist will open up the firm to many more real estate-specific M&A deals.
“We think that by adding a real estate presence, it will help us support the mid-market M&A ECM transactions that we have, so we’re looking forward to getting Mike underway,” he said.
“Mike is joining our team at a time when the real estate sector is experiencing strong growth: investors are seeing a wealth of opportunities in the market and the state and federal governments have committed to a significant investment in infrastructure development.”
Last week the firm lost partner John Mann, who began his legal career at Middletons and has now rejoined what is now K&L Gates after an 18-month stint at Clarendon Lawyers.
