The Monthly Recap - February 2025

The Monthly Recap – February

The shortest month of the year has come and gone, with a spattering of activity across the market. The RBA’s much anticipated rate drop came, with a 25bps drop, but caution followed, signalling there may not be more to come. Data centres & AI continue to be the flavour of the month, with global indexes taking a hammering in the second half of the month as Trump tariffs take effect. 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.

M&A

• Stonepeak’s Ampyr buys out Shell’s 50% stake in battery project (AFR)
• Pemba bought a 50% stake in Melbourne-based ctrl:cyber (AFR)
• Potentia Energy acquiring $1bn stake in CVC/Cbus owned renewable energy assets (AFR)
• CDC Data Centres valued at $17bn following 12% stake bought by Future Fund & Infratil (AFR)
• Generation Development Group acquired Evidentia Group, the investment advisor, for $320m (AFR)
• Japanese Trading House, Mitsui, bought an $8.4bn stake in Rio Tinto iron ore project (AFR)
• IFM sold a 10% stake to British Pension Giant Nest, planning to invest £5B (AFR) (FT)
• Potentia Capital sells Micromine to Weir Group for $1.35bn, 18 months after failed $900m sale (AFR)
• Dual-listed Light & Wonder eyes US expansion, $1.05bn acquisition of Grover (AFR)

Other Activity

• North QLD Airports begins $3bn sale, Macquarie drumming up bidders (AFR)
• AirTrunk makes its first big move by investing $2.5bn to establish AI/Cloud Computing facility in Malaysia (AFR)
• HMC Capital taps Macquarie Capital, working on a consortium to target Healthscope amongst others circling (Australian)
• Westgold sells Lakewood Mill, part of $2.5bn merger with Karora Resources (AFR)
• Early-stage funding, IPOs & women-led ventures face challenges despite $4bn startup raising in 2024 (CB)
• Syfe granted due diligence of ~20% acquisition of Australian share trading platform, Selfwealth, gatecrashing Bell Potter’s bid (AFR)
• Monroe Capital, a Chicago-HQ’d private credit fund set to open Sydney office, currently with US$20bn under management (AFR)
• Harrison.ai raised $179m with Aware Super co-leading the funding (Internal)

Investment Banking & Debt Markets

• Graduate numbers up for Goldman Sachs, BofA & UBS with Citi & Jarden falling amidst AI fears (AFR)
• Goodman joins data centre craze, eyeing spin-off, with Origin Energy seeking demerger of Kraken technology platform (Australian)
• Zenith nears completion of $1.9bn financing, 14 banks on lineup, amidst 50% sale process (AFR)
• PEP secured $800m debt to bankroll its SG Fleet acquisition (AFR)
• Carlyle providing $200m debt facility to fund UHL’s acquisition of GoZero (Ev Bus Builder) (AFR) Carlyle also provided $200m equity financing for SA battery deal (AFR)

Market Moves

• Perennial hired former UBS operative Luke Fay to co-head the private investments unit (AFR)
• Jarden's head of sales trading Frank Sarks joins Jefferies (AFR) as Jefferies loses its head of financials research Matt Wilson to Jarden (AFR)
• Simon Marrison resigns from Citi, where he was head of Sponsors, set to join Rothschild (AFR)
• Moelis poached RBC’s Kara Price to build out Power, Utilities & Renewables team (AFR)
• Barrenjoey’s Real Estate team loses head Rob Stanton (Built) & Peter Sidebottom (Goldman Sachs) (Australian)
• Robert Mead, PIMCO’s Australian head retires after 22 years with the firm (AFR)
• Affinity promoted Mark Chudek to Partner, the only Australian-based partner at the firm (AFR)
• Morgan Stanley USA cutting jobs in wealth-management unit (AFR)

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