Norton Rose Fulbright advises Gaw Capital Partners on its investment in Maoneng’s Australian battery energy storage system (BESS) platform

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has acted as legal advisors for Gaw Capital Partners on its majority investment in Maoneng Group’s portfolio of BESS and solar development projects across Australia. 

Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners is a private equity fund management company focused on real estate markets in Asia Pacific and other high barrier-to-entry markets globally and has over US$34.3 billion assets under management.

Maoneng is one of the first developers of utility-scale BESS projects in Australia.

Gaw Capital Partners will lead in securing equity and debt financing for the construction of existing projects with an estimated total capex of over AUD 2bn (USD 1.2bn).  Gaw Maoneng Renewables (GMR) will fast-track the development of six major projects in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia with a total of 1.9GW in battery storage and solar power generation, and explore new renewable energy opportunities.

GMR’s lead project, Mornington BESS, is expected to break ground in the first quarter of 2023.

A cross-border team of lawyers in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore advised on various aspects of the transaction, including structuring, conducting due diligence, negotiating transaction documents and bringing the transaction to successful completion.

Norton Rose Fulbright corporate M&A partners Ben Smits and Vicky Lam commented:

“At a time of heightened interest in Australian renewable projects and energy supply, this transaction marks an important step in Gaw Capital’s journey of strategic growth into large-scale renewable energy generation assets in Australia. We are pleased to have brought a multi-jurisdictional team, with expertise in M&A, real estate and construction, to help our client successfully complete this deal.”

Christina Gaw, Managing Principal, Global Head of Capital Markets and Co-Chair of Alternative Investments at Gaw Capital Partners commented:

“With the growing interest conveyed to us by many of our institutional investors to allocate capital to tangible assets in the clean energy and ESG space in Asia and Australia, we are very pleased with the opportunity to back one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in support of Australia’s energy transition away from fossil fuels.”

The firm’s Sydney-based team was led by Ben Smits and supported by senior associate Bill Lo, associate Joyce Shi, lawyer Melanie Lo and colleagues in the broader due diligence team.  The Hong Kong-based team was led by Vicky Lam and senior associate Timothy Lam. In Singapore, the team was led by partner Craig Loveless and assisted by senior associate Dexter Tan.