This year is on track to be the biggest in value and number for private equity since 2006. Here are a few of the stand-outs.
- BGH Capital proposed a A$1.3 billion takeover of Hansen Technologies.
- MessageMedia sold to Swedish tech company Sinch for A$1.7 billion.
- A consortium purchased a 49 per cent stake in Telstra’s InfraCo Towers business for A$2.8 billion.
- Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners sold its 40 per cent share in PEXA in a deal valuing the latter at A$3.3 billion.
- Cerberus bought Westpac’s car finance operation for more than A$1 billion.
- The proposed A$5 billion take private of Spark Infrastructure by KKR and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.
- A consortium led by IFM Investors bid A$22 billion for Sydney Airport, which was ultimately rejected.
International law specialist Allens predicts 2022 will be another bumper year with four main trends:
- More investment in businesses that benefited from the pandemic as well as those that suffered.
- Growth in health care.
- A willingness to back industries that were hit by COVID-19 in the short-term.
- Big potential in retail.
INVESTING IN ENTREPRENEURIAL FLAIR
A venture capitalist organisation wouldn’t last long if it threw wads of banknotes at every wannabe entrepreneur who knocked on its door. But equally, it couldn’t afford to tie itself in so many knots of due diligence red tape that it was still untangling liability data when an applicant had secured funding from its rival.
One thing that simplifies its decision-making process is when said entrepreneur has a track record as impressive as Mladen Jovanovic, Founder and COO of BindiMaps in Surry Hills, NSW.
Jovanovic was only 23 when he devised a way to match labourers with construction companies that could save the firms millions of dollars a year. Since then, he’s won the IBISWorld Innovation Competition, reached the final of MBAe Venture Day, won the University Startup World Cup, been listed as one of the most influential business leaders under 30 and reached the final of the Global Impact Challenge.
So, when he teamed up with his former university lecturer to invent a revolutionary app to help the blind and partially sighted navigate their way through buildings, the private equity firms he approached didn’t need much convincing.
BindiMaps uses bluetooth connectivity to map out interiors so they can be navigated by those who cannot see the walls and doors. In just over a year, Jovanovic raised more than A$7 million and the service has been rolled out for more than 450,000 square metres of indoor space across the country and helped 3,000 people.
“Being a leader is so much more than having a compelling vision which motivates you to get up out of bed in the morning,” he tells The CEO Magazine. “You have to be able to convince the people around you to believe and embody that vision as well.”
Digital disrupters
KPMG is certain that private equity will play an even greater role in the rapid growth of key sectors as Australia plots to bounce back from an unsettling 18 months.
“The investment environment for Australian high-growth ventures has never been stronger, with venture capital firms continuing to attract and deploy capital at a record rate,” says Amanda Price, KPMG’s Head of High Growth Ventures. “Alongside the continued progression of Australia’s new unicorns, we have also seen record seed rounds raised. Startups like Honey, Nourish Ingredients and Carted have attracted over A$10 million of early-stage funding.”
