Pepper Group is poised to appoint Highbury Partnership as its financial adviser for its plans to float as a $1 billion company on the ASX by the end of the year.
The advisory firm’s managing director, Matthew Roberts, is said to be working on a potential deal and will help the non-bank lender select joint lead managers for an IPO, said to be happening after June. An appointment of banks on the deal is said to be imminent, sources say.
Highway was financial adviser for Mantra’s $50 million capital raising and the acquisition of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts chain for $29.5m, which was announced yesterday.
The Mantra capital raising was at a zero discount to its last closing share price.
Mantra, which had its shares in a trading halt last night at $3.24, launched an IPO last year at $1.80 per share.
Highbury also worked on the IPO of billboard company oOh! Media for Champ private equity and the float of the $2.3bn services company Spotless, previously owned by Pacific Equity Partners.
On the Pepper IPO plans, UBS was already working for the lender, sounding out overseas investor interest for an IPO through a non-deal roadshow.
It is expected UBS will join at least one other investment bank as joint lead manager on the deal.
Run by Mike Culhane and Patrick Tuttle, Pepper’s operations are in based in Australia, Asia and Europe.
In Australia and Asia, earnings are generated from lending activities in the residential mortgage and consumer finance space, while in Europe it makes most of its money from managing performing and non-performing loans.
A potential float of the lender has been on the cards as part of its quest to gain more access to capital, as first flagged by The Australian last year.
It comes as momentum builds for other IPOs in the market place.
Bain Capital’s accounting software firm MYOB released research on its business to investors this week ahead of its plans for an IPO. Citi estimates the company’s enterprise value will be between $2.4bn and $2.8bn, but consensus among analysts is that the value is between $2.5bn and $2.6bn. The comparable company being used to price the float is US-based competitor Intuit, which trades at about 17 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
MYOB’s market for cloud-based accounting software is growing in Australia and New Zealand.
For the last quarter of 2014, MYOB said that 67 per cent of new small to medium enterprise product registrations were cloud subscriptions, up from 48 per cent in the previous corresponding period.
Meanwhile, Eclipx Group, formerly known as Fleet Partners, will launch its IPO at $2.30 per share, which represents 11 times its 2015 forecast net profit.
The company is expected to have a market value of about $518m and will raise $254m through the issue of 110 million shares.
Ironbridge Capital will retain its stake in the IPO while interests controlled by the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore will stage an exit.
Citi, Credit Suisse and UBS are working on the deal.
Management held a roadshow through Hong Kong and Sydney this week, ahead of meetings in Melbourne and Auckland next week. The bookbuild is slated for March 30 ahead of the prospectus lodgement on April 1 before the stock starts trading on April 23.
