Good evening,

Far from being the elephant in the room, COVID-19 is being positioned by the bankers on board Drifter Hospitality’s new capital raising as a black-swan event to be leveraged.

Drifter, the creation of Barrenjoey banker High Stephenson, New Zealand tourism business owner Ryan Sanders, and food and beverage marketing executive Joshua Hunt, is set to merge with New Zealand’s Haka Tourism Group and take ownership of a range of millennial-focused accommodation providers.

To fund the acquisition, Drifter is raising $75 million and Barrenjoey, unsurprisingly, is on board as the fund manager. Stephenson has taken on the role of founding director, Sanders will be CEO and Hunt will be chief creative officer.

Drifter wants to operate a portfolio of hybrid hotels – essentially fancy backpacker accommodation equipped with wellness offerings, bars and restaurants.

Elsewhere, infrastructure manager Morrison & Co is seeking a buyer for its half-share in Australia’s second-biggest wind farm, Macarthur Wind Farm.

Also, smash repairer AMA Group needs a capital injection; Ord Minnett is arranging meetings this week to test institutional investor appetite in Canberra-based Racing and Sports; and Japanese bank Nomura has started syndicating a new $190 million loan set up to back Australian heavy earthmoving equipment business National Group.

Happy reading,

Anthony Macdonald and Yolanda Redrup
Street Talk Editors