It's an interesting time for Credit Suisse analysts to launch coverage of the Australian outdoor media sector. 

The analysts came out with "outperform" ratings and big share price targets on both oOh!media and APN Outdoor on Tuesday morning, saying the two companies would continue to benefit from structural change in the media sector. 

Credit Suisse reckons APN Outdoor is worth $7.05 a share and said its 20.1-times price-to-earnings ratio was a reasonable place to buy. APN Outdoor shares closed at $6.38 on Monday. 

And the broker said oOh!media is worth $4.95 a share and said its 17.8-times P/E ratio was "an especially attractive entry point". The stock last closed at $4.40. 

"Whilst the fragmentation of broader media plays into the OOH [out of home] segment, the multi-year process of digitising inventory (which has several years to run) is providing an additional (and large) tailwind to the sector," the analysts told clients.

Credit Suisse's coverage comes as fund managers take a second look at the two outdoor advertising companies, following their respective successful initial public offerings in late 2014. 

Fundies are looking particularly closely at oOh!media, with a tranche of 36.2 million shares owned by CHAMP Private Equity out of escrow and subject to pitching from brokers. 

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New South Wales has invited the new crop of advisory firms to join its panel of transaction advisers, calling for pitches over the next month. 

NSW Treasury, which has been a rich source of investment banking work and fees in recent years, has opened its advisory pre-qualification shortlist to new firms who missed out when the scheme was initially set up in 2012. 

Treasury released tender documents to the firms on Friday, calling for pitches from new firms around credentials and key members by May 6. 

The government said it was seeking pitches for roles including financial advisers, accounting and tax advisers, public private partnership financial advisers and PPP industry advisers. 

Successful firms would join the shortlist of firms NSW reaches out to when it requires corporate and transactions advice. 

Existing firms on the shortlist - including the likes of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank - were told they do not need to reapply. The government built the initial shortlist in 2012, before extending it in February 2015 for anther three years. 

It comes as Macquarie Capital was appointed to advice government body Sydney Motorway Corporation on a WestConnex funding round, and as UBS and Deutsche Bank run auctions to sell the state's electricity infrastructure. JPMorgan is also working on the sale of the state's Land and Property Information unit. 

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The corporate regulator is set to ramp up its attack on potential bank-bill rate riggers and trader misconduct, launching action against a second major Australian bank as early as Tuesday. 

Sources told Street Talk the action related to senior staff within another treasury division of a big four bank and the market chat functions used between them.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has delved into the communications of all the large banks and in this latest instance is said to have uncovered the use of aggressive and inappropriate language.

An ASIC spokesman declined to comment on specific cases saying only that the regulator was "looking at all the banks."

This follows the regulator kicking off court proceedings against ANZ Banking Group in March alleging traders manipulated the bank-bill-swap rate.

The ASIC documents were quite damning for ANZ in that the evidence suggested that traders knew exactly what they were doing and communicating their intentions. 

Elsewhere in financial services, interested parties in the partial auction of Western Australia's Keystart mortgage portfolio are expecting to learn this week whether they are through to an indicative bid stage. More details on a firm timetable for the auction may also emerge.

Some of the parties that lodged an expression of interest by the end of March outlined their appetite for a transaction but only if the structure of the sale was changed to allow more autonomy around pricing and loan book management. 

This column revealed Pepper Group and AFG were among parties that received teaser documents for the $1.6 billion Keystart loan portfolio sale.

Other names expected to run a ruler over the book, of which up to 40 per cent is on the block, include RESIMAC, Bank of Queensland and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.

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Macquarie Capital has launched a $1.5 billion private capital search to fund the next leg of major New South Wales roads project, WestConnex. 

Street Talk can reveal that Sydney Motorway Corporation, the state-owned entity set up to finance and develop major infrastructure projects starting with WestConnex, has formally engaged Macquarie Capital as financial adviser to consider private sector financing options for WestConnex. 

Sydney Motorway Corporation says it will consider "all reasonable investment options... at the appropriate time". The question for Macquarie - and all other parties around WestConnex including existing and potential lenders, the government, potential road owners, contractors and bankers - is when it is appropriate to switch paths from debt to equity funding. 

It's understood Macquarie has started initial market engagement, reaching out to big Australian and offshore lenders who may be convinced to write a $500 million-odd cheque. 

Sources said the first step was to assess debt markets, before considering whether to widen the search to mezzanine debt providers or even equity partners. 

Transurban is one party who would be watching closely. Industry sources said Transurban was devoting plenty of time to thinking about how WestConnex fits into its existing Sydney motorways network, and considering what it could offer the state in return for a leading role in WestConnex's future.

Thoughts have turned to Transurban's existing concessions and whether they could be extended in return for a commitment from the $22.7 billion Australian tollroad operator. 

Macquarie's had plenty of dealings with Transurban in the past, and was on the opposite side of the table when Transurban and friends agreed to pay $7 billion for five Brisbane tollroads in 2014. 

Other banks that would have been considered for the WestConnex role - including UBS, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley - are all close to the Scott Charlton-led company. Street Talk revealed the pitching process earlier this year. 

Macquarie was also heavily involved in forming WestConnex's business case and even wrote the proposed financing strategy in 2013. 

Elsewhere in transport, KKR-backed trucking company McColl's Transport will meet institutional investors in Sydney and Melbourne this week as it considers an initial public offering in the second half of the year. 

As Street Talk revealed on Monday, McColl's management will meet fund managers in Sydney on Tuesday and Melbourne later in the week, in early-stage investor education meetings arranged by broker Shaw and Partners. 

McColl's is one of the country's largest independent trucking companies, specialising in the bulk transport of milk, wine and other foods, and bulk chemicals. It is owned by KKR MacKellar LLC, which was an entity formed by private equity firms KKR and Allegro Funds to buy a $350 million distressed debt portfolio in November 2012. 

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The dust has only just settled on the dramatic demise of retailer Dick Smith, but submissions to a Senate committee investigating the failure are trickling out.  

Street Talk understands the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Limited is among parties that have lodged a submission with the Senate Economics References Committee. 

The debate is set to be fiery as politicians seek answers on Dick Smith's collapse. AVCAL's submission is said to highlight the challenges facing all retail companies in Australia, not only those once owned by private equity. 

It argues that private equity has not hindered growth in the retail sector and cannot be held responsible for failures. The submission is said to cite data suggesting a lower failure rate for private equity-owned or backed retailers when compared to industry averages.

The argument, while not without some merit, may not go down well with all interested parties after namesake and company founder Dick Smith and others blasted buyout firm Anchorage Capital Partners for its role in the retailer's demise. Anchorage listed Dick Smith and sold out of its holding ahead of the firm being placed in the hands of administrators in January.

The AVCAL submission is also said to touch on private equity's broad reach and contribution to the domestic economy, and specifically that more than 100 Australian retail and consumer-related companies are backed by PE. It cites favourable examples of retail companies that have emerged from private equity ownership including JB Hi-Fi. 

The committee is tasked with assessing the causes and consequences of the collapse of listed retailers in Australia. 

As of Monday, only two submissions had been made public including from an un-named aggrieved shareholder and another by law professor Michael Quinlan and his colleagues at the University of Notre Dame. 

It's understood Anchorage and former Dick Smith chief executive Nick Abboud have been asked to take part in the Senate inquiry.

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