Freehills and Minter Ellison acted on the Australian leg of a global US$2.9bn leverage buyout.

The deal was part of the US$15bn sale of the Hertz group, a subsidiary of Ford.

Freehills worked with French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel and White & Case, and was led by securitisation expert Tessa Hoser and banking partner Wendy Gwyn.

Minters acted as the Australian advisers to the acquirers, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. Finance veteran Ralph Ailing led the Minters team.

"This was the sort of deal where you would have conference calls in the middle of the night with 30 other people," Hoser said. "At Freehills, we have acted for the lead arrangers many times previously and are on Bank of Scotland's panel."

New Zealand was the other Asia-Pacific country involved in the deal.

David McPherson from Bell Gully advised the acquirers, while John Powell from Russell McVeagh acted for the financiers in New Zealand.

A total of 12 countries were involved in the leverage buyout.