Good evening,

And welcome to a new IPO candidate!

Koala, which has graduated from a mattress-in-a-box newbie to a well-stocked e-commerce furniture brand, is ready to put its IPO pitch to fund managers after flirting with a float for nearly three years.

Street Talk can reveal Koala co-founder Dany Milham, who rejoined the business 18 months ago and took over from Mitch Taylor as the CEO last year, is slated to front a roadshow to run from Wednesday to Friday this week. Barrenjoey is mandated on the deal.

Fund manager sources said the meetings have been billed as a “non-deal roadshow”.

Should Koala proceed with the IPO, it could seek to raise $100 million.

The presentation, seen by Street Talk, says Koala made $240 million net revenue last calendar year after growing 33 per cent year-on-year. This trickled down to $7.7 million EBITDA. Gross margin stood at 62 per cent.

Japan is now a big market, driving 25 per cent of sales.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

• Preliminary sale documents are out for Winc, Australia’s largest B2B office supplies business. It is one of the biggest PE-owned assets slated for an auction in 2025.
• New York’s Stonepeak is test-driving bus giant Kinetic’s Australia and New Zealand arm, which owns SkyBus and makes $1 billion-plus revenue.
• Ord Minnett chased up its Perpetual Private raid with another hire.
• Sprintex, an ASX-listed maker of high-speed electric motors and clean air compressors, is raising cash after shares rose 210 per cent in 12 months.

• Sydney’s Protecht, a little-known risk management software company, received a $445 million investment from the US’ PSG Equity.
• On the ASX, WA gold miner Gold Road Resources CEO Duncan Gibbs didn’t mince words on his press tour after rejecting Gold Field’s $3.3 billion bid; James Hardie’s $14 billion merger proposal with Azek sparked a valuation debate; and Star Entertainment extended Salter Brothers’ due diligence for a $750 million lifeline.
• Lastly, tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his fellow investors in superannuation start-up Spaceship are a step closer to seeing some cash from an $80 million all-scrip deal, after new owner eToro filed for an IPO.

Goldman Sachs and Gresham Partners’ sales pitch for office supplies player Winc says it pulled in nearly $1 billion revenue for 2024, making it more than 2.5-times larger than the closest competitor, Office Brands.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.