The Monthly Recap - October

The Monthly Recap - October

October was a busy start to Q4, with plenty of activity but not without its casualties. Firmus’ abandoned IPO was a major blow, while NextDC’s plunging share price has had a sobering effect for the data centre sector. A fresh wave of global and domestic restructurings saw major players announce significant workforce cuts, while private credit is facing mounting liquidity pressures as multiple funds suspend property fund redemptions. Yet, despite the gloom, dealmaking remained active, with the closing of several chunky transactions and a healthy pipeline of potential deals underway. This report outlines select M&A deals, general market activity and significant news amongst private equity, investment banking & debt markets. We also include a short section on recent notable market movers.

M&A    

 
• CPPIB offloads $4.5b stakes in three Sydney toll roads to Transurban (The Australian)
 
• EQT to acquire Cleanaway in a $9.3b deal, ending its 21-year ASX listing (AFR) backed by $5.6b debt package (AFR)
 
• IFM Investors buys 64% stake in Associated British Ports at a $19b valuation (AFR)
 
• PEP wins $1b FleetPartners acquisition after a competitive auction (AFR)
 

Other Activity  

 
• OMERS acquires indirect minority stake in $3b La Trobe Financial from Brookfield (AFR)
 
• TPG takes 14.9% stake in Equity Trustees’ parent EQT Holdings amid competing takeover bids (AFR)
 
• Firmus abandons planned $7.9b ASX listing, shifts focus to Nasdaq IPO (AFR)
 
• CPPIB and Temasek commit $1b to Nuveen’s second Australian property debt fund (AFR)
 
• Partners Group restricts $12b PE fund withdrawls, as ART, UniSuper and Hostplus face liquidity concerns (AFR)
 
• Macquarie Capital buys into Singapore-based data centre developer Zerra DC to expand its APAC exposure (AFR)
 

Investment Banking News & Debt Markets

 
• Bank of America steps up Australian equities research expansion with new hires across consumer, insurance and industrials coverage (AFR)
 
• Australian financial sector faces sweeping jobs cuts: Deloitte cuts 170 roles (AFR); Scyne Advisory sheds 25+ staff and MDs (The Australian); NAB plans 2500 redundancies (The Australian); Perpetual plans more job cuts amid outsourcing (AFR) and Cooper Investors restructures analyst team (AFR)
 
• Private credit withdrawal woes: MA Financial suspends $2.1b property fund redemptions (AFR); Metrics faces $900m+ in redemptions (The Australian); and Dexus reviews its $1.1b healthcare property fund after 90% investors seek exit (AFR)

Market Moves

   
• Former HSBC boss, Antony Shaw gets the top job at Ord Minnett (AFR)
   
• Jarden poaches Manny Syrrou as managing director and Tim Sammon as director for tech team (AFR)
   
• Lempriere Wells names Elemis co-founder Sean Harrington as partner (AFR)
   
• RBC loses another research heavyweight as Nicholas Daish heads to Munro Partners (AFR)
   
• Regal splits Phil King’s empire between Mark Nathan and Zachary Corones as co-heads of its long/short strategies (AFR)
   
• Jarden hires Forsyth Barr veterans Jared Butter and Nick McLister to NZ equities team (AFR)
   
• Henry Hill leaves Regal to join Perpetual amid EQT takeover interest (AFR)
   
• UBS’s Dim Ariyasinghe jumps ship to E&P Capital to cover diversified mining (AFR)
   
• Luminis loses its youngest partner as Cameron Wilson moves to Azure (AFR)
   
• Pallas Capital creates new role for Qualitas’ Dean Winterton to head institutional capital (AFR)