The Monthly Recap - March

The Monthly Recap – March

March has been a month dominated by the collapse of Credit Suisse, Silicon Valley Bank, and the fear of more to come. According to the AFR, investment banks had their worst March quarter since 2006, not a huge amount of M&A deals have been seen across the industry, however large infrastructure deals have kept chugging along. In this report we outline selected M&A deals, general notable activity, and some interesting movements & activity among the investment banks & private equity firms.

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M&A

• First Sentier have picked up a majority stake in AlbaCore Capital Group, who looks after US$9.5bn of institutional funds. (AFR)

• Brookfield & QIC are among the parties suspected to be in the mix for Sun Cable, doubtful Brookfield will progress given Origin Energy deal. (Australian)

• HRL Morrison & Co. are in discussions to acquire UK’s Ark Data Centres, deal said to be worth £2.5 billion. (BBG)

• HRL Morrison & Co are also looking at Pact Group’s crate manufacturing and pooling business alongside IFCO. (Australian)

• MA Financial & Goldman Sachs in talks for the $200m marina operators D’Albora (AFR)

• Platinum Equity in final round talks for acquisition of Jeld-Wen Australasia (AFR)

• Morgan Stanley are supporting Bain Capital as they lob $3 a share bid for Estia Health (AFR)

• Spark Infrastructure, up for sale through Lazard, have a short-list of five parties (Australian)

• RBC kicks off the sale of Horizon Roads’ 55.45% stake in EastLink. (AFR)

• Adamantem weighing up exiting investment in Hygain, horse feeding business (AFR)

• Brookfield & EIG Partners confirm the purchase of Origin Energy, shareholders to receive $8.912 per share. (AFR)

• Allegro have gone through talks with Skincare business BWX, whose share price has fallen 97.4% since 2018 peak (AFR)

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Other Activity

• Healius is under the watch of OMERS, EQT & IFM to compete against ACL’s merger proposal. (Australian)

• HSBC purchased Silicon Valley Bank’s UK arm for 1 pound (TC)

• Wingate is chasing down $100m for third corporate credit fund. (AFR)

• Spaceship have been testing M&A interest in the business (AFR)

• Affinity Equity Partners have poached Nick Speer to head up the Australian team (AFR)

• Brookfield targeting Australian and offshore lenders to bankroll its private hospitals owner Healthscope, they have tapped CBA, DBS, MUFG and SMBC for funding. (AFR)

• Crescent Capital are thinking about pulling together a new syndicate of investors to invest in Healthcare Australia (AFR)

• InvoCare has called in Goldmans for back-up as TPG adds proxy solicitation firm Morrow Sodali as advisers to rally shareholders to accept bid. (AFR)

o InvoCare says TPG’s $1.8bn bid is too cheap and recommended shareholders take no action. (AFR)

• QIC set to lose two of its most senior Australian infrastructure dealmakers (AFR)

• Virgin Australia have been briefing institutional investors on their improved debt position ahead of their May IPO (Australian)

• GenesisCare has announced departure of founder & CEO Dan Collins (AFR)

• Barrenjoey, JPMorgan are chasing buyers for Ventia Services block (AFR)

• An inside look into Anchorage hit the press mid-march (AFR)

• JPMorgan hit one of the largest during-hours trades of the year, handling 1.5 million CSL shares (AFR)

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Investment Banking News

• Deutsche Bank showed their first signs of financial distress, surge in credit default swaps. (ABC)

• Plenty in the news about Credit Suisse and UBS’ buyout:

o Credit Suisse First Boston spin-off in doubt as UBS works through its $4.8bn takeover. (AFR)

o Bankers fret after Credit Suisse’s rapid capitulation to rival UBS. (AFR)

o ANZ chief Shayne Elliott warns turbulence that has toppled SVB and CS has further to play out. (Australian)

o Sergio Ermotti returns to UBS to oversee the takeover of troubled Credit Suisse (Guardian)

o Apollo, Oaktree and Bain Capital have shown interest in Credit Suisse’s $2bn Aus/NZ loan portfolio (Australian)

• Australian investment banks having their worst year since 2006, with a 66% fall in revenue compared to 2022’s first quarter. (AFR)

• Macquarie eyes up $8.9bn takeover bid of UK-Listed Fund Manager (AFR)

• Jarden Boss James Lee intends to leave the firm this year (AFR)

• Lindsay Maxsted has joined UBS as non-exec Chairman (AFR)

• Goldman Sachs have offloaded $150m worth of residential mortgages to BNK Banking (Australian)

• Christian Johnson to retire from Goldman Sachs (AFR)

• UBS has a freshly minted role – Head of Global Markets, which Michael Hendrie has been picked for (Bloomberg)