The Funds Group at Clayton Utz is a fully integrated national team of lawyers with a dedicated focus on domestic and international funds work.
We offer a complete service for all types of collective investment vehicles and managed fund products across all asset classes, including structured products and alternative investments (including property and infrastructure).
We deliver practical, strategic, commercial and innovative advice to leading national and international participants within the financial services industry including responsible entities, fund and investment managers, investment advisers, sovereign wealth funds sponsors, trustees, custodians and service providers and scheme financiers.
Clayton Utz is also an Australian market leader in Islamic finance and investment, one of the fastest growing segments of the global financial services industry. Our knowledge and experience enable us to offer an unrivalled full service Islamic finance and investment practice to clients in Australia and overseas.
We advise on Shariah compliant finance and investment transactions and structured products, including investment management structures (Mudaraba), deferred purchase agreements (Murabaha), asset leasing (Ijara), partnership structures (Musharaka) as well as Islamic bonds (Sukuks) under a sale and lease back arrangement (Sukuk al Ijara), and can arrange for Shariah certification through our affiliations with Islamic consultants and their Shariah scholars.
The team provides a complete service including advice on:
- initial strategic planning and tax structuring (including for complex cross-border transactions including Islamic finance and investment transactions and stapled structures)
- capital raising for listed, retail and wholesale vehicles
- asset portfolio acquisition and disposal (with particular capability in alternative asset classes such as property, infrastructure, hedge funds and structured products)
- merger, restructure and takeover of funds
- fund governance issues
- financial services regulation implications for fund manufacturers, distributors and platforms (including licensing, disclosure and sales and marketing activities) and dealings with the regulators, for example ASIC, APRA, ASX and FIRB
- fund remediation and compensation projects
- influencing regulatory and industry outcomes through our understanding of, and working relationships with, key industry bodies including the Investment and Financial Services Association, the Australian Financial Markets Association and the Alternative Investments Management Association.
We offer first tier transactional capabilities and the seamless management of cross-jurisdictional advice in conjunction with best of breed local law firms around the globe.
Members of our team also sit within our multidisciplinary Financial Services Group with expertise in superannuation, governance and compliance andinsurance. Together we host our annual conference, "Risky Business", which draws speakers from industry and regulators to address the latest trends and issues in the superannuation, wealth management and risk management industries. We also work together with other partners through our real estate markets industry group.
Our team members also lecture as part of a University of New South Wales Masters of Law course, the first specialist combined funds management, superannuation, insurance and compliance law course in Australia.