Media Release: Clayton Utz congratulates SG Fleet Group on its "transformational" acquisition of Leaseplan winning FinanceAsia's Best Debt Finance Deal award

Sydney, 6 December 2021: A high-stakes strategic transaction for ASX-listed SG Fleet Group on which Clayton Utz advised was named Best Debt Finance Deal (includes Securitisation and Structured Finance) for Australia / NZ at the FinanceAsia Achievement Awards 2021, announced on 19 November.

Banking and Financial Services partners Alex Schlosser, Sonia Goumenis and Steven Klimt led the Clayton Utz finance team that advised SG Fleet Group on its acquisition of LeasePlan's Australia and New Zealand fleet management and leasing offering — creating a $2.5bn company overseeing a total of 250,000 vehicles.  Alex, Sonia and Steven were assisted by a strong team of finance lawyers including special counsel Kathryn Mitchell, senior associate Mark Chahine, and lawyers Charles Leu and Kevin Ong, as well as members of our Taxation team, in particular, special counsel Louisa Wu and senior associate Kelvin Ng.  

The deal completed on 1 September 2021.

Combining a “certain funds” acquisition finance package with a vendor finance facility and fully funded securitisation warehouse, as well as an accelerated, non-renounceable Entitlement Offer to close the transaction, required careful co-ordination and management of various complex legal and practical issues in Australia and New Zealand.

Alex commented that the acquisition was considered "transformational" for SG Fleet Group in realising a number of aspects of its business strategy. 

We were honoured to be part of that journey and particularly pleased that we were able to work on such a highly complex transaction from a financing perspective.

Sonia noted the "massive team effort" required to ensure all elements of the transactions and workstreams were effectively co-ordinated.  "The transaction brought together a number of advisors, financiers and other service providers in both Australia and New Zealand who worked closely with the SG Fleet team to successfully navigate all the various twists and turns to achieve a successful completion."