The Monthly Recap - April
While M&A activity remained steady, the broader tone was cautious. Many believe that Australia will come out relatively unscathed but with the recent federal elections behind us, and rate cut expectations building, in a market this jittery, certainty feels like a luxury.
April was anything but quiet for Australia’s financial markets. The month had a rocky start as Trump’s tariffs and a subsequent 90-day pause triggered global markets to plummet and rattled investor confidence at home, especially in tariff-sensitive sectors like tech and retail. While M&A activity remained steady, the broader tone was cautious. Many believe that Australia will come out relatively unscathed but with the recent federal elections behind us, and rate cut expectations building, in a market this jittery, certainty feels like a luxury. This report outlines selected M&A deals, general market activity and significant news among the investment bank & private equity firms, plus any significant news across debt markets.
• Singapore’s GIC to acquire 10% stake in Transgrid for over $1b (The Australian) as Abu Dhabi’s Tawreed hires Barrenjoey to sell its 19.99 % stake (AFR)
• Allegro funds sells majority stake in Questas to Five V Capital, marking first exit of 2025 (AFR)
• Scape Australia outbids GIC to acquire Brookfield’s $3b retirement living operator Aveo (AFR)
• Stonepeak acquires majority stake in IOR (The Australian), following $5.7b deal to buy 40% of Woodside’s Louisiana LNG project (The Australian)
• DAZN acquires News Corp’s 65% stake in Foxtel in a $3.4b deal (AFR)
• Levis Family sells Cue Clothing and Veronika Maine to UK’s Hilco Capital (AFR) former Country Road executive Melanie Remai appointed as CEO (AFR)
• Virgin Australia set for ASX return in June (AFR)(The Australian), promising “this time it is different” in its first IPO pitch (AFR)
• Dan Murphy’s owner Endeavour Group secures investment from Tanarra Capital amid instability (AFR)
• Blackrock enters booming self-storage sector with StoreLocal acquisition (AFR)
• Ex- First Sentier managers launch micro-cap fund via Balmoral Investors and Mantis Funds (The Australian)
• National Storage REIT buys stake in Abacus Storage King, complicating $1.9b Kirsh-Led takeover bid (AFR)
• Private equity giants hit hard as rising debt and weaker economy wipe out $US61.3b in value since start of year (The Australian)
• GenesisCare’s Australian business refinances “take-back debt” under Oaktree ownership (AFR)
• Senior executives exit as Australian Retirement Trust restructures, axes dozens of investment staff (AFR)
• Private capital’s rise drives structural shifts across major investment banks to tap into $1.7 trillion in super fund savings (AFR)
• Top Australian superfunds turn to private unlisted assets to mitigate impact amid Trump’s tariffs and global market volatility (AFR)
• Novus aims to raise $1b+ to fund “build-to-rent projects” across Sydney and Melbourne (AFR)
• UBS tops Extel’s inaugural ANZ sell-side research rankings, followed by JPMorgan (AFR)
• Australian investment banks report mixed 2024 profits: Morgan Stanley bounces back with $7.7m profit (The Australian), Goldman Sachs saw profit dip to $4.4m (The Australian) and Jefferies increased net profit to $10.2m (The Australian)
• UBS analyst Lee Power leaves to lead JPMorgan’s Industrials Coverage (AFR)
• Goldman Sachs’ former ECM head joins Morgans Financial to lead NSW corporate advisory (AFR)
• Goldman Sachs nabs banking analyst Brendan Sproules from Citi (Capital Brief)
• Citi’s head of Australian energy research James Byrne, departs for Singapore based AG&P LNG (AFR)
• Vocus Consumer CEO Nitesh Naidoo named CFO of Dyno Nobel (Capital Brief)
• Bank of America hires former Goldman Sachs veteran Ian Taylor as new head of ECM (AFR)
• Aware Super adds Sue Brake and Grant Smith to investment committee as fund surpasses $190b (AFR)
• Morgan Stanley’s Alex Sutton joins RBC as director, hedge fund sales (AFR)
• BofA’s Matt Chalmers heads to JPMorgan’s natural resources investment banking team (AFR)
• HTL Group appoints ex-Commbank executives Mario Saia and Andrew Hazell to launch debt advisory business (AFR)
• Bain Capital taps Brookfield’s Rahim Chunara for its Asia special situations team (AFR)
• Jay Ditmarsch departs Carlyle Credit to launch private markets strategy at Point72 (AFR)
• Perpetual strikes back at Ord Minnett, recruits senior advisor duo Michael Innes and Antony Pupovac (AFR)
• KPMG’s Tony Moussa exits after failed $450m PHG refinancing, eyes private capital future (AFR)
• Jayne Hrdlicka named Endeavour CEO after months-long search to fill top job (The Australian)
• Citi hires UBS’s Laura Sutcliffe as new head healthcare research (AFR)
