The Monthly Recap - October 2024

October has been a slight hangover from the large deals closing in September, but has plenty in the pipeline heading into the final two months of the year. Multiple $1bn+ deals are looking for final bidders and looking to close before Christmas. There have been plenty of people moves across both buy-side and sell-side with firms/individuals keen to secure roles/talent prior to the holiday break. 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

• HMC Capital raise $300m in their $1.93bn purchase of data centre Global Switch Australia (AFR)
• Quadrant set to acquire stake in Herron Todd White, a property valuation service provider (AFR)
• Greystar to buy GIC student accommodation business for $1.6bn (AFR)
• Myer expected to close $1bn merger with Premier Investments’ portfolio of brands (AFR)
• DIF & Cbus set to sell local $800m Bright Energy Investments to European Utilities giant (AFR)

Other Activity

• PEP looking at Incitec Pivot for when it re-launches sale next year (Australian)
• Macquarie Capital begun the sale process for Cairns & Mackay Airports sale (Australian)
• Navis Capital begins taking pitches for their Device Technologies asset, with a potential $1bn+ sale (AFR)
• Allegro moving forward with sale of Questas Group, hiring UBS (Australian)
• Singapore Post’s Australian assets hotly contested with Brookfield amongst potential bidders (Australian) BGH Capital are also preparing a bid, hiring Jefferies (AFR)
• EQT, Affinity, Bain Capital, Carlyle all bidding for Livingbridge’s $1bn Waste Services Group (AFR)
• QIC has been active across private debt, deploying $30 million into Icon Group’s accordion facility (AFR)
• UniSuper offloaded some $500m worth of APA shares with JP Morgan running the book (Australian)
• I-Med’s $4bn auction reaches a critical stage with MAM and Bain Capital being the final parties (AFR)
• Barings launches Australian credit fund with $690m+ to deploy (AFR)

Investment Banking & Debt Markets

• Macquarie and Goldman Sachs jumped up the M&A league table following AirTrunk deal (AFR)
• MA Financial launched $500m RMBS deal through MA Money platform (AFR)
• Plenty of discussion regarding banking hours recently – with the viability of junior hour caps being questioned (AFR)
• Coex Capital secured $200m securitisation warehouse led by Burtonwood Investment Partners (AFR)
• Anchorage-owned David Jones set to close off $190m refinancing deal (AFR)
• HSBC weighing cost-cutting measures to save $300m with divisional restructures globally (Reuters)
• Goldman Sachs closed $500m refinance for Pallas Capital (AFR)

Notable Market Movers

• NAB announced a round of redundancies as their markets & corporate finance teams were restructured (AFR)
• Ex-Regal trader Campbell Chambers sets up new long/short fund in New York (AFR)
• Barrenjoey snapped up Amy Mallace from CLSA to join their Global Sales Division (AFR)
• Canaccord Genuity picked up Andrew Wilson from Ethical Partners for their Institutional Sales desk (AFR)
• Goldman Sachs brought Ed Wittig back to Australia to co-head M&A for APAC (Australian)
• E&P Financial re-hired Sacha Krien as Gretel Janu heads to Regal (AFR)
• Anchorage hired Ed Bostock to join as a Managing Partner (AFR)
• Jefferies picked up Andrew Lyons from Goldman Sachs to be Head of Equity Research for the firm (AFR) Paul Young has been named as replacement to work alongside Matthew Ross
• WiseTech’s Richard White resigned as CEO following scandal (AFR)
• Nick Speers reportedly resigned from Affinity as Country Head (AFR)
• Ares kicks off Australian business with poaching Nicholas Onie from Bain Capital (AFR)