About Michelle
A banking and finance law specialist, Michelle has a proven track record achieving timely and commercial outcomes for financial institutions, private lenders and borrowers in both domestic and cross border transactions.
Specialising in commercial property and development, agribusiness finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring, Michelle’s expertise extends to negotiation of contractual arrangements and advice as to lending and security structures, as well as due diligence and compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements. Drawing on hands-on experience gained during secondments to two Australian banks, Michelle has a detailed understanding of commercial considerations and the risk appetite of lenders and a result has a sound understanding of internal mechanics and policy requirements for financial institutions when undertaking lending transactions.
Specialisations
Experience
Agribusiness
Acting for a Big 4 Bank on a $120 million acquisition of cattle stations located in the Northern Territory and Western Australia by a Vietnamese owned agricultural company, including advising on tripartite arrangements with the Northern Land Council and local indigenous group.
Agribusiness
Acting for a major bank in relation to the provision of facilities to assist with the refinance of the customer’s existing facilities and construction of a Queensland abattoir. The funding was provided in conjunction with Commonwealth and State Grants and so involved consideration of side deeds with the government departments and negotiation of priority arrangements.
Agribusiness
Acting for an Australian bank on the $100 million refinance of a cattle company operating a pastoral business in Northern Australia, including advising on the structuring considerations in respect of the numerous trusts and partnerships involved.
Agribusiness
Assisting a Big 4 Bank in funding circa $58 million of facilities for the acquisition of various agricultural property aggregations.
Corporate Finance
Assisting a major bank with the negotiation, documentation and completion of a $110 million loan facility to refinance three outgoing financiers across a portfolio of three serviced apartment complexes with adjacent food and retail specialties comprising approximately 150 titles.
Corporate Finance
Acting for an ASX Listed company in respect of its debt facilities with a major bank, which involved funding to assist with the acquisition and consolidation of various group entities. The transaction required negotiation of the finance documents and completion of a financial assistance whitewash in relation to the target entities.
Corporate Finance
Assisting a bank with the provision of working capital facilities to a corporate group, involving a bespoke arrangement to assist with financing a conversion of shares and subsequent equity capital reduction.
Commercial Property and Development
Advising a private fund in relation to their $200m financing from a major bank to assist with the acquisition of a shopping centre in Darwin, and subsequently their $170 million financing to assist with their acquisition of a shopping centre in central Queensland.
Commercial Property and Development
Acting for a private funder on the provision of finance to assist with the acquisition of a building on the Gold Coast, to facilitate the redevelopment of the building into luxury residential apartments. This required the completion of due diligence in respect of the site and negotiation of finance documents to meet the investor’s specific requirements.
Commercial Property and Development
Assisting a Big 4 Bank in respect of their $58 million acquisition and construction funding facilities for a luxury beachfront development. This involved negotiation of multipartite arrangements with the various counterparties including the mezzanine financier.
Commercial Property and Development
Assisting a Big 4 Bank in the provision of construction funding to assist a managed investment scheme to develop NDIS housing, including ensuring compliance with the legislative and regulatory framework, completion of due diligence regarding the management agreements and building contract and negotiation of associated side deeds.
Commercial Property and Development
Advising a non-institutional lender in respect of its funding of the acquisition of a hotel site in Brisbane. This included the completion of due diligence in respect of the site which involved a mixture of commercial and residential properties, and complex settlement arrangements with the involvement of multiple entities as well as receivers and managers.