Macquarie Bank was top Australian deal maker in first quarter
By Lyndal McFarland Last Update: 5:44 AM ET Apr 3, 2006
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) -- Macquarie Bank Ltd. (MBL.AU) ranked as Australia's top dealmaker in the first quarter, heading the Thomson Financial merger and acquisition league tables to edge out the local unit of Goldman Sachs (GS), UBS (UBS) and Citigroup (C). Boosted by its involvement in the tussle between energy providers Australian Gas Light Ltd. (AGL.AU) and Western Australia's Alinta Ltd. (ALN.AU), Sydney-based Macquarie was involved in 18 deals during the three months to March 31, worth US$16.4 billion. This was twice the number of deals that second-placed Goldman Sachs JBWere was involved in.
Thomson said overall M&A activity for the quarter jumped 14.4% on year to US$35 billion, even though there were 4.5% fewer deals announced during the period.
The figure was boosted by a last minute M&A flurry including the Australian Stock Exchange's A$2.3 billion bid for Sydney Futures Corp. and Tattersall's Ltd.'s (TTS.AU) A$1.9 billion bid for UNiTAB Ltd. (UTB.AU) Another notable deal was Macquarie Infrastructure Group's (MIG.AU) US$3.9 billion acquisition of Indiana Toll Road with Spain's Cintra SA (CIN.SA), which was led by bankers from Macquarie.
Macquarie is handling Alinta's A$8.8 billion hostile scrip bid for larger rival AGL, the biggest deal for the quarter. The bid ranks as the largest in Australia since BHP Billiton (BHP) last year offered US$7.3 billion for miner WMC Resources.
Australia's largest home-grown bank just edged out Goldman Sachs JBWere. The Wall Street investment bank's local unit, which is working on AGL's A$2.73 billion counter bid for Alinta, was involved in first quarter deals worth US$16.1 billion.
UBS, which held the number one spot a year ago and was the leading dealmaker in 2005, was relegated to third position despite working alongside Goldman Sachs on the AGL counteroffer, followed by Citigroup, which coordinated Toll Holdings Ltd.'s (TOL.AU) revised bid for stevedoring and transport group Patrick Corp. (PRK.AU). That deal has landed Citigroup in hot water with the regulator. Last week, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission sued Citigroup in a landmark insider trading court case set for late April.
Citigroup denied the charges laid by ASIC which relate to trading in Patrick shares one trading day before Citigroup's client Toll first launched a hostile A$4.6 billion takeover bid in August last year.
Market commentators say the allegations could threaten the local deal rankings held by Citigroup, which has a role in Telstra Corp.'s (TLS) US$18.6 billion privatization slated for late 2006. The key advisers to Canberra on this share sale are UBS, Goldman Sachs JBWere and independent advisory firm Caliburn Partnership.
Citigroup ranked second on the equity capital markets table behind UBS and was bookrunner on five deals worth A$747.8 million. UBS served as bookrunner on A$1.2 billion worth of deals. Macquarie Bank ranked third.
The Australian ECM market was down 34.1% on year, raising only A$5.6 billion worth of proceeds. Initial public offers (IPOs) raised just A$85.7 million, follow-on offerings raised A$3.7 billion, while convertible deals raised another A$1.8 billion, Thomson said.
MBL Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
