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Jason Denisenko

Partner

Jason is Co-Managing Partner of Australia and Managing Partner of Sydney.

He specialises in the structuring and provision of a wide range of financial products and services to wholesale and retail clients.

Jason is an expert on financial services regulatory matters including financial services licensing, marketing and distribution of financial products. Jason is a leading investment funds partner who advises major fund managers on the structuring, establishment and promotion of listed and unlisted funds and in relation to capital raisings and fund restructures. He also advises Australian and foreign institutional investors on their participation in a wide range of collective investment schemes and investment arrangements as well as custody, investment management and similar arrangements.

Jason is recognized as a Band 1 leading individual by Chambers 2024 for Investment Funds in Australia for his work advising institutional investors and fund managers across a wide range of business lines. He is recognized by clients as “highly experienced and a very commercial, pragmatic operator; with a friendly and warm approach.”

Experience

Representative matters

Australian rules for foreign financial service providers, 2018. 
 
Dexus on its acquisition of a large global investment manager’s $28bn real estate and domestic infrastructure business, comprising a platform of pooled funds and separately managed accounts.

Assisting a large institutional investor on its proposed investment into a US$500 million fund to hold interests in underlying liquefied natural gas assets. This involved undertaking due diligence on the underlying assets (which included a potential AU18 billion takeover bid) and fund documentation and side letter negotiations with the fund manager. 
 
An international investment bank structured globally as two separate regulated banks, on the merger of one Australian branch into another, as well as the simultaneous integration of a prime brokerage business acquired from another global financial institution. This involved providing advice regarding ETF market making, drafting applications for bespoke individual relief instruments, advising on complex aspects of securities lending and market making regulation by both ASIC and the ASX. 
 
A large foreign financial institution in respect of several of its investments in recent years – including a co-investment into an Australian renewable energy fund, promoted by Queensland Investment Corporation. The fund which targeted approximately 1,000 MW of large-scale renewable generation with a total expected investment of $2 -3 billion dollars, was established to finance investments in large scale renewable projects across Australia and is the largest scale fund with an underlying asset class of its type in Australia. 
 
Routinely advising, through our global network of foreign offices, foreign clients on a range of financial services regulatory issues including licensing, raising capital from Australian investors (including via IPO's, rights issues etc), disclosure issues, data privacy and cross-border movement of customer information.

Pro bono

Advising a philanthropic foundation on its initiative to eliminate diseases such as cancer.

Published Work

  • Co-author of "Initial Coin Offerings: A comparative overview of securities regulatory environments in the US, UK and Asia Pacific", GLI - Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Regulation 2009, First Edition

Speaking Engagements

  • Guest Speaker, Diversity & Inclusion - globally and locally, Workforce Inclusion and Diversity conference, 27/04/2019
  • Australia's Royal Commission into the Banking and Financial Services Industry, March 2019

Leadership Positions And Professional Affiliations

  • Law Society of New South Wales
  • FINSIA

Awards

  • AFR ‘Best Lawyer’, Ranked as a Band 1 practitioner in Chambers & Partners Australia, Investment Funds

Qualifications

Admissions

Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2010

Admitted as a solicitor, New South Wales, Australia, 1993

Academic

Bachelor of Laws, Legal Practice, Australian National University, 1993

Graduate Diploma, Applied Finance & Investment, Australian National University, 1993

Graduate Diploma, Legal Practice, Australian National University, 1993

Bachelor of Commerce, Australian National University, 1991

Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.