insto - Australian financial markets

Caliburn Partnership, acquired during the week by US-listed advisory group Greenhill, has a good pipeline of deals this year which will play well into the newly merged group’s global network.

Nomura has continued its ambitious pronouncements, with the bank’s new head of global banking, Jesse Bhattal, identifying Australia as a key market as the Japanese firm looks to build a global investment banking business. Bhattal told the Australian newspaper Australia “has to be one of the most important markets, not just in the Asian region but globally.”“If you look at the fee pools in the region, the lion’s share is in Australia.

 PE Alert – 18 February 2010

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Asian financial sponsors interested in Loscam; reported on 15/02/2010
Aside from private equity heavy weights Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Carlyle Group Loscam is attracting the attention for Loscam Asian financial sponsors,. Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are believed to be advising the vendors Affinity Equity Partners on the dual track process.

The week started from two significant euro bonds from Telstra and CBA, and ended with four new ABS transactions from Bankwest, BEN, Colonial, and Macquarie. NZ’s Southland Building Society also added two new RMBS tranches.

Moody’s Investor Services issued three downgrades on Friday. The rating for United Energy Distribution (UED) was lowered to Baa2 from Baa1, and in a separate action, DBNGP Finance (DBNGP) and Energy Partnership were cut to Baa3 from Baa2. As a result, around A$2.8 billion in debt securities were affected.

The agency said it previously recognised the weak financial profiles of electricity distributor UED and gas distributor EPG, while the downgrade in Perth based DBNGP’s rating reflects the lack of cushion in its credit metrics.

2009 wasn’t a bumper year for the syndicated loan market, but then that could be said of many other product sectors of the market as well. According to Thomson Reuters, the Australian loan market post a loss of 41.7 per cent over 2009 to reach US$44.8 billion in proceeds.

Listed Brisbane-based brokerage Wilton HTM has a new chief executive with the promotion of David Groth and a settlement with major shareholder Deutsche Bank. Wilson HTM has agreed to pay Deutsche, which holds a 19.9 percent stake in the company, $2.5 million a year as a percentage of its profit for the past four and a half years. The firm has lead managed, co lead managed and underwritten $3.4 billion in IPOs since 2005 as well as being involved in A$5.2 billion in M&A transactions. Two Deutsche Bank directors will stay on the Wilson HTM board.

The CEO of retail house Myer, Bernie Brookes, has conceded that the company went too early to the market for its $2 billion IPO under pressure from private equity owner TPG.
Announcing a disappointing $45.75 million net profit – short of the prospectus forecast – a figure which included $93.5 million in costs related to the float, Brookes said: “My inclination was always to wait but the owners made the decision, not management.”
$380 million has been slashed from Myer’s market capitalization since the November float, with the shares 16 percent lower than the offer price.

The same week as the Queensland Government appointed advisors on the float of the QR National rail assets, the coal industry has revved up its attempt to trump the bid and force a trade sale. 14 of Queensland’s biggest coal companies are talking up their interest in offering to a substantial premium to what the market is currently expected to pay for QR, and intervene before the asset gets to an IPO, valued at between $3 and $7 billion.

But Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser said there was currently no offer “on the table from the coal companies.