Dean Bao has extensive experience advising financiers and borrowers on a wide range of financing transactions throughout Australia and Asia Pacific. Dean's practice focuses on project finance, acquisition finance, and corporate finance, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Prior to joining Jones Day in 2024, Dean represented Metis Energy on the financing for the 111MW Gunsynd solar farm; Global Power Generation on the refinancing of the Berrybank 2 Wind Farm; Japan Bank for International Cooperation as credit support provider to Telstra's AU$1.9 billion acquisition of Digicel Pacific; OMERS on its acquisition of TPG Telecom's tower assets portfolio; and various private credit funds and financial institutions on the up to AU$1 billion take-private unitranche financing for TPG Capital's acquisition of Invocare. He also represented the lenders on the financing to Global Infrastructure Partners for the US$2.5 billion acquisition of a minority stake in the Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas project; the privatization of a toll road project in New South Wales; the privatization of the South Australian and Western Australian land title registries; and a multibillion syndicated project finance loan to a Chinese, Malaysian, and Estonian joint venture for the development of an oil shale fueled power plant in Jordan.
Dean is a member of the Law Institute of New South Wales and the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association. He is recognized in Best Lawyers as "Ones to Watch" for banking and finance (2023) and in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific as a "Rising Star" in project finance in Australia (2022).
Experience
- Monash University (LL.B. and Bachelor of Commerce [Accounting] 2008; Monash University Merit Scholarship)
- High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Victoria
- Mandarin Chinese