The Monthly Recap – August

The Australian market experienced its strongest week of the year, with Private Equity firms particularly proactive in securing high profile deals. EQT made some interesting moves, including bidding on the $1bn WSG and acquiring Compass Education. This month also saw some significant executive changes and reshuffles among the major players and private credit capturing considerable attention, positioning the market to continue the momentum into the end of the year. 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

• Alceon Private Equity acquires a 70% Stake in Victoria’s Shadbolt Group, a major defence contractor. (AFR)

• Advent’s Compass Education acquired for $700m, by Private Equity firm EQT (AFR), circumventing Goldman Sachs’s earlier interest (The Australian).

• AMD acquires ZT systems, a US based server builder for over $7b, paying 75% of it in cash. (Capital Brief, Reuters)

• Japanese giants Nippon Steel and JFE Steel collectively bought a 30% stake in Queensland’s Blackwater coking coal mine for $1.6bn. (AFR)  

• ART buys Queensland Government’s 33% stake in Powerco, increasing its ownership to 58% in a deal handled by Barrenjoey. (AFR)

• Woodside Energy acquires the low carbon Ammonia project in a $3.7bn deal (AFR) just weeks after its $1.35bn acquisition of Tellurian (AFR).

• Ares Management raises nearly $34bn for its direct lending fund, setting new records in Private Credit. (Bloomberg)

Other Activity

• Global Alternative Funds raises $1.2bn for the Canadian VC, Radical Ventures’s AI-focused Growth Fund. (AFR)

• Rinnai Corporation, a Japanese appliance maker set to enter Australia’s renewable energy market by buying majority stake in Smart Energy. (AFR)

• M&A Madness: AGL Energy acquires Firm Power, invests $250m (AFR), Veolia bought Electricity in Box (AFR) and Splend Gets new Clean Energy Funding. (AFR)  digiDirect buys the online bookseller Booktopia, (AFR) and Australian fintech, Superhero acquires MYOB’s Slate Super. (AFR)

• MyState and Auswide Bank merge to form a nationwide bank with $9.6bn in deposits. (AFR)

• Grant Thornton UK's Stake Up for Sale: Private Equity Giants Carlyle, Blackstone, Permira, CVC Capital Partners, and Bridgepoint eye the Opportunity. (AFR)

Investment Banking News

• Private Capital Surge: Ares, Apollo, Blackstone and KKR invests $248b signaling deal revival. (Financial Times)

• Bank of Queensland all set to cut as many as 600 jobs across several units to reduce costs and simplify structure. (The Australian) laying potential groundwork for a future merger with Bendigo Bank. (The Australian)

• Private Credit deals in Australia hits $200bn, Driven by Reduced Bank Lending to Real Estate (AFR) PC Firms including Ares and Blue Owl, target the $1trn Market with Focus on Wealthy Australian Investors (AFR)

• CBA cuts private wealth jobs (AFR) as it prepares to sell its high-net-worth advice business (AFR)

• Herbert Smith Freehills M&A Partners Bet on Demergers to Drive Next Wave of ASX Deals (AFR)

Notable Market Movers

There have been plenty of Notable Market Movers in August including:

• Cbus rocked by yet another high profile exit as chief of transformation, Natalie Hannemann resigns, less than a year into the job. (AFR)

• Citi hit by double departures, Alex Cartel, Citi’s Head of Investment Banking leaves for Rothschild & Co. (AFR) and its Head of electronic trading Johnny Lau is all set to join RBC in November. (AFR)

• Five senior Canva execs have left in the last year and a half ahead of its planned IPO. (AFR)

• Bankwest Appoints Eleanor Bensley, McKinsey’s Banking Practice Lead, as New Chief Digital Officer. (AFR)

• Global X ETFs’ head of portfolio management Cliff Man leaves after over 10 years with the firm. (AFR)

• Goldman Sachs Hires Top Talent: New Head of Equities Mark Davis Brings on Morgan Stanley’s Beatrice Tsu-Jones (AFR), and Barrenjoey’s Eugene Budovsky Joins as Head of Australian Electronic Trading (AFR).

• Scarlett Dorney named head of investment solutions for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management replacing Shaun Bornstein as he leaves after 8 years. (AFR)

• CBA’s Stephen Halmarick steps down as chief economist after 15years with the bank. (The Australian)