Spotlight on Sharon Liu: What's in store for the year ahead?
Ahead of the Deal - Australian M&A Briefing
This month we meet Sharon Liu – newly appointed Partner, fresh off the back of a landmark transaction, and a few other big things just around the corner. Sharon started with the firm in 2014 and has advised on a number of high-profile M&A transactions in Australia. She frequently acts for both listed companies and private capital clients across a variety of sectors and also has unique sponsor-side insight having spent time in Ashurst's Global Investment Funds practice in London.
Q1: Sharon, you've had a huge year. What have you been up to lately?
It really has been quite a big 12 months.
Just recently, I have been part of a huge team advising a consortium of Brookfield and GIC on their $4 billion acquisition of National Storage REIT by way of a concurrent scheme of arrangement and trust scheme. National Storage REIT operates more than 300 self-storage centres across Australia and New Zealand, and this is the largest ever take-private of an ASX-listed real estate investment trust.
The transaction really showcased the best of Ashurst’s integrated strengths across M&A, debt financing, tax, real estate, competition and other specialist disciplines.
More broadly, the deal illustrates the increasing trend of take-private activity in Australia, and underscores market conviction in alternative real assets, particularly self-storage, which has been a relatively resilient sector offering steady yields, rising demand and substantial runway for consolidation activity.
Q2: Congratulations on your appointment to Partner. Being an M&A Partner at a global law firm is a challenging and often demanding path to tread. What drew you to it, and what keeps you going?
Thank you! Challenging and demanding, absolutely - but professionally very satisfying. There needs to be balance, of course, but I find the pace and dynamism genuinely stimulating. The intellectual rigour, the teamwork under pressure and the tangible impact for clients are what drew me to this practice and what continue to motivate me. Complex structuring, aligning stakeholder interests, and the need to distil all the threads into incisive advice and seamless execution are what make a tough deal happen.
Q3: I understand congratulations are also in order for a forthcoming wedding. It sounds like you've just got a lot going on!
Ha – yes. 2026 is proving to be a milestone year in more ways than one, and I am not sure I had intended to launch new phases in my life and my career in quite such quick succession. I'm lucky to have an enormously supportive partner - and such supportive Partners! We are currently finalising our wedding plans in Tuscany next month. I suspect my planner is less enthusiastic about the “implementation steps plan” I have whipped up for her, but old habits die hard.
