Melbourne, 22 March 2011: Four major infrastructure projects on which Clayton Utz's Major Projects team provided legal advice and support have been singled out for key industry awards – further cementing the firm's reputation as the go-to law firm on major infrastructure deals.
Victoria's $759 million Peninsula Link road project was named Project Finance APAC Transport (Road) Deal of the Year at the Euromoney Project Finance Deal of the Year Awards held in Hong Kong on 17 March. A Clayton Utz team led by Melbourne-based Major Projects partners Marko Misko, Naomi Kelly and Dan Fitts provided strategic legal and commercial advice to the Linking Melbourne Authority on all aspects of the project. The Peninsula Link project was delivered in record time, utilizing innovative tendering processes, sophisticated risk allocation and highly streamlined project documentation which the Clayton Utz team developed.
Clayton Utz also provided, and continues to provide, strategic legal advice and support in relation to three major infrastructure projects acknowledged at the 2011 National Infrastructure Awards held in Sydney on 18 March. The projects are the New Royal Adelaide Hospital (winner of the Advisory Excellence Award); the M2 Motorway Upgrade (Government Partnership Excellence), and; the Gateway Upgrade Project (Project of the Year).
With a capital value estimated at $1.7 billion, the New Royal Adelaide Hospital (NRAH) Project will be the highest value social infrastructure project ever delivered in Australia. A Clayton Utz team led by Melbourne-based Major Projects partner Jo Pugsley is providing legal advice to the project jointly with the SA Crown Solicitor's Office. NRAH will be South Australia's flagship public hospital and will be based on innovative model of care that will deliver healthcare, environmental and economic benefits.
NSW's M2 Motorway Upgrade Project, achieved through a successful partnership between the NSW Government's road delivery authority RTA (which Clayton Utz advised, led by Sydney partner Stuart Cosgriff) and Hills Motorway (100% owned by Transurban) required an innovative contractual and financial structure to accommodate the major upgrade of an operating toll road. The Gateway Upgrade Project in Queensland, named Project of the Year, was similarly an infrastructure project success story for its stakeholders, which included Leighton Abigroup Joint Venture as contractor, advised by Clayton Utz Brisbane partner Arch Fletcher.
A senior partner in Clayton Utz's Major Projects practice, Brad Vann, said industry recognition of these projects reflected the market-leading experience and innovation that project stakeholders and their advisers brought to the table, and their ability to work together seamlessly as a team.
"We congratulate our clients and the project participants on the recognition that their projects have received. Clayton Utz is certainly proud to be associated with these projects, and to continue to make a contribution to Australia's infrastructure development," Mr Vann said.
Clayton Utz's leading-edge experience in Public Private Partnership transactions in the Asia-Pacific has also been highlighted with the release of leading industry publication Infrastructure Journal's 2010 Global Infrastructure League Tables. Clayton Utz ranked first in IJ's Full Year 2010 Legal Advisers involved in PPP Transactions by Region (Mandates Won), and second in relation to PPP Transactions that achieved Financial Close during 2010.
Clayton Utz has advised both government and private sector participants on many of the Asia-Pacific's largest PPP projects, including New Royal Adelaide Hospital, Peninsula Link and EastLink in Victoria (on the government side), and the Victorian Desalination Plant, Melbourne Convention Centre and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre projects (for private sector participants).