The Monthly Recap - March & April

The Monthly Recap – March & April

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March and April were defined by a flight to safety as the Middle East conflict intensified and risk appetite faded. Deal flow slowed, with major transactions including the $4b plus Greencross IPO halted. Still, Australia held up better than expected, supported by stronger GDP, a firmer Aussie dollar, and the strongest M&A Q1 since 2023. 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.

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M&A        

 ·        Magellan, Barrenjoey strike $1.6b merger deal (AFR).

 ·        Stonepeak acquires 50% stake in Aura in deal to deploy $1b into growth (AFR).

 ·        KKR joins Bain in $1b battle for UP Education (The Australian).

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Other Activity  

·         AirTrunk to invest $4.2b in new Malaysia data centres (AFR).  

·         EQT raises $21.7b Asia-Pacific fund, sets new record (AFR).

·         Perpetual sells wealth division to Bain Capital for $550m (AFR).

·         ART has invested $500m into a property trust fund run by Dexus (The Australian).

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Investment Banking News & Debt Markets

·        NAB cuts 170 Australian jobs in a new round of redundancies (AFR).

·        Australian M&A hits $US 28.4b (The Australian) as Goldman tops deal rankings while Macquarie takes ECM crown (AFR).

·        UBS tops Extel’s Australian sell-side research rankings, Barrenjoey a close second (AFR).

·        BOQ offloads $3.7b loan book to Challenger in capital overhaul  (AFR).

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Market Moves

·        Catalyst Founder, Deepan Pavendranathan hires former colleague Andrew Kam as Vice President (AFR).

·        Citi analyst Will Park joins UBS’ emerging companies research unit (AFR).

·        Challenger investment head Pete Robinson joins Barings as portfolio manager (AFR).

·        UBS promotes Holly Clements to head of leveraged capital markets for APAC (AFR).

·        Shiv Gupta to head Brookfield’s private equity for Australia (AFR).

·        Citi poaches Goldman healthcare banker Ben Bartholomaeus (AFR).

·        Aware names Alex Satchcroft head of private Equity, managing $11b portfolio (AFR).

·        Citi adds metals and mining analyst Thiago Ojea to Sydney research team (AFR).

·        Morgan Stanley’s Anders Svensson leaves to head Citi’s natural resources division (AFR).

·        ECM banker Anthony Hanna leaves Goldman Sachs for Bank of America (AFR).

·        JP Morgan adds Henry Meyer and two analysts to equity research team (AFR).

·        Azure Capital raids RBC’s debt advisory team with two senior hires (AFR).

·        MA Moelis appoints Phillip Baruffi to lead natural resources coverage (AFR).

·        RBC nabs Morgan Stanley analyst Andrei Stadnik to lead financials push (AFR).