Marcus Davenport

Practice Areas

Marcus Davenport's focus is on major projects, property development and general debt finance. Marcus has a proven track record having had lead roles on a variety of high profile, high value matters, including many large scale PPP projects, for both government and private sector clients, and for major financial institutions and large corporate borrowers. He is highly skilled in structuring and managing all aspects of large, complex projects.

Marcus' skills in debt finance extend to project, property and acquisition finance as well as general corporate commercial financing, unsecured and secured bilateral and syndicated lending arrangements.

Over his 25+ years at Clayton Utz, Marcus has built a reputation for his outstanding leadership skills and his ability to work collaboratively with project stakeholders. He has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with large complex matters and his insights and experience help achieve excellent outcomes for clients.

Work Highlights

New Footscray Hospital PPP: Clayton Utz, with Marcus as lead partner, advised on all aspects of Plenary Health's winning bid for the New Footscray Hospital PPP Project, including on negotiations with the State, the financiers, equity providers, construction and services contracts. The transaction was the first social infrastructure project to be procured on the basis of the Victorian Governments standard form PPP contract. The project reached financial close in March 2021 and was the single largest health infrastructure investment in Victoria.

Victorian Government - Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) and Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF): Acted for DTF and DFFH on the 'Implementation of the Victorian Social Housing Growth Fund' and 'Implementation of Building the Financial Capacity of Housing Associations' projects, as part of the Victorian Government's social housing growth initiatives to build an affordable housing industry and support more partners in the delivery of new social and affordable housing and services. Currently acting for this client in the procurement of the Ground Lease Model 2 PPP which involves the private finance of 4 new residential towers to increase the supply of affordable and social housing in metropolitan Melbourne.

High Capacity Metro Trains Project: Marcus led the legal team that advised the winning consortium (Plenary, Downer and CRRC) on this Victorian PPP for the procurement of at least 65 new high capacity metro trains at a cost in excess of $2.5 billion. These trains will be used on the corridor that includes the new Metro Tunnels that are currently under construction.

Sydney Metro Stations, Systems, Trains, Operations and Maintenance (SSTOM) Project | lead partner acting for a shortlisted consortium on this project to delivery new metro trains, stations, core rail systems and stabling and maintenance facilities for a part of the Sydney Metro project.

Property Development Finance | Has acted for entities including Sandhurst Villawood entities, Development Victoria, Westpac, ANZ, National Australia Bank and Wingate Property Group on land acquisition and construction development projects and refinancing of same.

New Perth Stadium | As lead partner advising the Westadium consortium on this $1 billion PPP to build a new Stadium in Perth, Marcus was responsible for the overall delivery of Westadium's successful bid to develop, finance and maintain the stadium. He continues to act for them during the operational phase of the project including in respect of refinancing the debt finance on the project.

Industry Sector Expertise

Banking & Financial Institutions

Government

Infrastructure