What better time to take your investors out than when you’ve got a $4 billion exit on the boil.
Street Talk reckons that’s TPG Capital Asia boss Joel Thickins’ state of mind as he assembled his top regional deal makers – and global CEO Jon Winkelried to boot – to break bread with key investors at the annual LP conference in Sydney on Monday.
Our spies tell us the location was deal maker hotspot Capella Sydney, a much shorter trek for Thickins who shifted his family’s base camp to Coogee from Melbourne earlier this year. Readers will recall past locations have included Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula.
It’s a stock-standard PE ritual – locals BGH Capital and Pacific Equity Partners put on their versions in March – but still important, given it’s a chance to parade recent investments, talk up future winners, and test waters for fundraising.
In TPG’s case, we imagine LPs would be pushing to get answers on two of the firm’s biggest investments Down Under: pets-and-vets business Greencross and clinical research play Novotech.
Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.
Street Talk understands American manufacturer of gasoline engines Briggs & Stratton is seeking to exit the region, carving out its Australasia division in a sale led by 333 Capital. Its prize asset is heritage garden power tool brand Victa, which accounts for 43 per cent of its net sales.
Best and worst
A rally in mining and energy stocks pushed the Australian sharemarket to within 40 points of its record closing high on Monday.