PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE:
Anthony Papamatheos is an experienced commercial barrister. His practice focuses on corporations, energy, resources and mining matters as well as commercial, banking and insolvency disputes.
Anthony appears in superior courts and tribunals, for trials, interlocutory disputes and appeals. He appears for and advises many leading companies, including Fortescue Metals, Westpac, Suncorp, Barrick Gold and the Minderoo Group, as well as many publicly listed exploration and mining companies.
Anthony is listed as a leading barrister in Western Australia for both Litigation and Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Reconstruction in Doyle’s Guide (in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019). He was the recipient of the Australian Mining and Petroleum Lawyers Association (AMPLA) national award in 2015 as a leading junior Australian energy and resources lawyer.
His work involves obtaining results and finding practical and commercial solutions with clients. Recent matters include:
- Successful completion of the $20 billion+ Wesfarmers-Coles demerger by scheme of arrangement, one of Australia’s largest ever schemes of arrangement, acting for Wesfarmers Limited in the Supreme Court of Western Australia (2018) (led by SK Dharmananda SC).
- Successfully defending the Australian Rugby Union Limited from claims by RugbyWA concerning the removal of the Western Force Super Rugby team from the Super Rugby Competition in an arbitration before Mr BA Coles QC in Sydney and also successfully resisting an appeal by RugbyWA to the NSW Supreme Court ([2017] NSWSC 1174) (led by JT Gleeson SC).
- Successful appeal to the High Court of Australia for Forrest & Forrest Pty Ltd concerning mining lease applications over the Minderoo Pastoral lease (Forrest & Forrest Pty Ltd v Wilson [2017] HCA 30) (led by AJ Myers QC).
- Obtaining mining leases and project critical infrastructure licences and access for iron ore, gold, base materials and specialty mineral projects, including land access for FMG’s 70mtpa mines at the Solomon Hub, WSM’s Kwinana operations, AGPL’s Balline Garnet project, VRX’s Arrowsmith and Muchea silica projects and Hawthorn/Gel’s Anglo Saxon gold project.
- Numerous company takeover and reconstruction matters in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Supreme Court of Victoria and Federal Court of Australia with $29 billion+ in cumulative deal value. These include the first solvent reconstructions in WA in three of Barrick Group’s $700m+ corporate reorganizations (2016, 2017 and 2018, unled) and the first ever scheme of arrangement for the takeover of a foreign incorporated, ASX-listed, company (Redcliffe Resources, 2016, unled).
- More recent takeover and re-domiciliation schemes include Nzuri Copper (2019), Navitas (2019), MacPhersons-Intermin (2019), Doray-Silver Lake (2019), Beadell Resources (2018), Decimal Software (2018), Tawana-Alliance (2018), Kangaroo Resources - PT Bayan (2018), SRG-GCS (2018), Excelsior-Spitfire (2018), Persol-Programmed (2017), Exterra-Anova (2017), Kore Potash (2017), Pan Pacific Petroleum-Zeta Resources (2017).
- Advising listed public companies on corporate control issues, ASX listing rules, Takeovers Panel matters, disclosure and other corporate governance issues, acting on curative relief applications under s 1322 of the Corporations Act 2001 and acting in market misconduct and continuous disclosure cases.
- Advising on complex contractual and statutory interpretation issues.
- Acting successfully on disputes concerning subscription agreements with listed public companies for securities.
- Recovery matters for banks, corporate advisors on their mandates, and insolvency practitioners for companies in liquidation, and other financial product and financial services disputes.
- Successful judicial review of decisions of the Minister for Mines to impose additional royalties on miners under the Mining Act 1978 (WA).
- Success in disputes concerning state agreements and large scale project tenement forfeiture cases, including defeating applications for forfeiture against Griffin Coal’s 60 coal mining leases (2013, led) and acting for Hanking Gold in the successful resolution of applications for forfeiture against 130 tenements forming part of its Southern Cross Operations (2016, unled).
He is a senior honorary research fellow at the Law School of the University of Western Australia, lectures in the Mergers & Acquisitions law unit and is a co-convenor of the bi-annual Corporate Control Forum at the Law School. Anthony has published a book and articles on schemes of arrangement and published and presented on contractual penalties, contract termination and damages for breach of contract, directors duties as to competing proposals in M&A and access to corporate books, and restitution claims.
He has a Bachelor of Laws (with Distinction) and a Bachelor of Commerce (in Corporate Finance) from The University of Western Australia. He practiced as a solicitor at a boutique commercial litigation firm before being called to the Bar in 2011.