Tony Damian

Practice Areas

Tony is widely regarded as one of Australia’s leading M&A lawyers.

Tony has a track record of helping clients achieve their goals in the most complex and significant transactions. For over 25 years, Tony has assisted clients by providing strategic and practical advice. The Chambers Global and Asia-Pacific Guides have rated Tony for a number of years as one of only a small handful of Band 1 M&A lawyers in Australia, with clients in the 2025 edition saying “He is easily the best M&A lawyer in Australia” and “He combines high levels of experience, deep technical capability, pragmatic and thorough advice and an ability to deliver at the board level.” Tony is in the 2024 Legal 500 Powerlist 2024 – M&A – Asia Pacific, as well as the 2021 Legal 500 Hall of Fame with one client noting: “Tony Damian is in my view the country’s leading M&A lawyer these days. He has unrivalled technical skills but also is acutely commercial, practical, and responsive. His list of marquee transactions is testimony to the regard in which he is held in the market.

Tony has won the Australasian Law Awards Australian Dealmaker of the Year for the last four consecutive years that it was held as an individual award (2023 (joint winner), 2022, 2021 and 2020), and was then selected for the inaugural 2024 Australasian Law Dealmakers’ List. At the 2023 awards one judge’s comment was: “Tony is at the top of his game and the top of M&A legal practice in Australia, both as a practitioner and as a thought leader.” Tony was included in the inaugural 2021 Australasian Lawyer Most Influential Lawyers list and also in its 2022, 2023 and 2024 lists.

Tony recently won Partner of the Year, as well as the overall Excellence Award, at the 2024 Lawyers’ Weekly Australian Law Awards. He is also the Lawyers’ Weekly 2022 and 2021 M&A Partner of the Year, 2021 Australian Law Awards Partner of the Year, and 2024 and 2020 Commercial Partner of the Year. Tony won Dealmaker of the Year at the 2010 Lawyers’ Weekly Awards and again at the 2014 Awards. He has been nominated a further eight times for Dealmaker of the Year by Lawyers’ Weekly and Australasian Legal Business. Tony was also the MergerLinks Top M&A Lawyer for Australia and New Zealand in 2021 and 2020, winning its M&A deal league tables in both years, with a 2021 deal value over £29 billion.

Tony is co-author of Schemes, Takeovers and Himalayan Peaks, a leading book on public company mergers that founded the Ross Parsons Centre monograph series at the University of Sydney. Now in its fourth edition, the book has been described by the Chief Justice of New South Wales as the “pre-eminent text” in the area and has been cited in over 50 judgments. Tony is the co-editor of Before You Tie the Knot, a major book on joint venture law and also of Towns Under Siege, a major book on contemporary issues in takeovers. He is also General Editor of the Australian Journal of Corporate Law. Tony is also the co-host of the podcast series Himalayan Bites, which looks into topical M&A issues.

Most recently, Tony has co-edited Bootmakers, Boards and Rogues, a major new book published in 2023 on corporate and securities law. ASIC Chair Joseph Longo, who wrote the foreword for the book, described it as “informative, thought-provoking and rich in analysis and ideas.”

Tony co-founded The M&A Conference, an annual charity conference run in conjunction with Allens and King & Wood Mallesons, in partnership with the Australian Financial Review and in support of The Black Dog Institute, a leading mental health charity.

Background

Tony holds a Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Master of Laws from the University of Sydney.

He was formerly a tutor in law at St Andrew’s College at the University of Sydney, and also a lecturer in takeovers at the university. Tony currently serves on the board of directors of Loreto Kirribilli Limited.

Work Highlights

CSR Limited on its A$4.3 billion acquisition by Saint-Gobain by way of scheme (2024)

Suncorp on its A$4.9 billion sale of Suncorp Bank to ANZ Banking Group (2022-2024)

Santos in its A$80 billion merger discussions with Woodside Energy (2023 – 2024)

Sydney Aviation Alliance in its A$32 billion (EV) acquisition of Sydney Airport by way of schemes (2021-2022). This is the largest takeover in Australian history. The deal was awarded M&A Deal of the Year at the 2023 Australasian Law Awards, Project of the Year at the 2023 National Infrastructure Awards, Infrastructure Deal of the Year at the 2022 Australian Mergermarket M&A Awards and Transport Acquisition of the Year – APAC at the 2022 IJInvestor Awards

Link Group on its A$2.2 billion (EV) acquisition by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corporation (2023-2024)

Sayona Mining on its A$850 million all-stock merger with Nasdaq listed Piedmont Lithium, and associated equity raisings aggregating to approximately A$149 million (2024)

Advising an entity controlled by Charles and Colette Assaf, on the acquisition of an increased stake to acquire a controlling interest in Montessori Academy Group Holdings Pty Ltd (2024)

Treasury Wine Estates on its A$1.6 billion acquisition of DAOU Vineyards and associated A$825 million equity raising (2023)

Thales on its A$180 million acquisition of listed cyber firm Tesserent Ltd by way of schemes (2023)

The George Institute for Global Health on the sale of George Clinical to Hillhouse Capital (2023)

Ramsay Health Care on its response to the A$20 billion approach from KKR (2022)

Tassal Group on its A$1.7 billion (EV) acquisition by Cooke Inc by way of scheme (2022)

Santos in its A$22 billion merger with Oil Search (2021). This deal was awarded M&A Deal of the Year at the 2022 Australasian Law Awards

Boral Limited in its response to the A$8.5 billion unsolicited takeover offer by SGH (2021)

Coca-Cola Amatil Limited on its acquisition by CCEP by way of scheme valuing Amatil at A$11.1 billion (EV) (2020-2021). This deal was awarded M&A Deal of the Year at the 2021 MergerMarket M&A Awards.

Link Group in its proposed A$3.5 billion (EV) acquisition by Dye & Durham by way of scheme and responses to the approaches from the PEP / Carlyle consortium and also SS&C and subsequent block trade of 10% of its stake in PEXA and distribution of the remainder of its shareholding in PEXA valued at A$950 million (2020-2023)

Ampol Ltd in its A$1.9 billion acquisition of Z Energy Ltd by way of scheme (2021)

BINGO Industries Limited on its A$2.3 billion acquisition by MIRA by way of scheme (2021)

EQT Partners in its A$3.1 billion change of control approach to Iress Limited (2021)

Smartgroup in its response to the A$1.4 billion approach from TPG / Potentia (2021)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on its sale of a 55% interest in Colonial First State to KKR and A$3.3 billion joint venture (2020-2021)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the merger of its Aussie Home Loans business with online mortgage broker Lendi (2020–2021)

Capgemini on its A$95 million acquisition of RXP Services by way of scheme and its A$230 million acquisition of Empired by way of scheme (2020-2021)

Apex Group in the A$400 million contest for control of Mainstream Group by way of scheme (2021)

Access Intelligence plc on its proposed acquisition of iSentia Group Ltd by way of scheme (2021)

Caltex Australia on its response to the A$10 billion (EV) Couche-Tard NBIO (2019 - 2020)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on its A$4.2 billion sale of Colonial First State Global Asset Management to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (2018 - 2019)

Barrick Gold Corporation on the A$1.1 billion sale of its 50% interest in KCGM (the Super Pit) (2019)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on its A$3.8 billion sale of its Australian and New Zealand life insurance business to AIA (2017 - 2019), including the implemented joint co-operation agreement and 25 year distribution agreement (2019) as well as Part 9 life scheme (2020-2021)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the proposed A$8 billion demerger of certain of its wealth and mortgage broking businesses (2018-19)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the sale of financial advisory business Count Financial to CountPlus (2019)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on its role in the successful consortium for the A$1.6 billion purchase of PEXA (2018)

Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the proposed IPO of its global funds management business CFSGAM, a fund manager with A$219 billion in AUM (2018)

ERAMET SA on its successful A$350 million hostile takeover of Mineral Deposits Ltd (2018)

Caltex Australia Ltd on its expanded fuel and convenience relationship with Woolworths Ltd (2018)

Reynolds Group on the sale of the Asian packaging operations (excluding Japan) of Closure Systems International and Graham Packaging Guangzhou to Pact Group for A$142 million (EV) (2017)

BINGO Industries on its acquisitions of National Recycling Group and Patons Lane Recycling Centre and Landfill (2017)

WiseTech Global on the acquisition of CMS Transport Systems and the tariff compliance solutions business, Digerati (2017)