ASX-aspirant Scottish Pacific and its advisers will send a bullish message to investors on Tuesday morning, Street Talk can reveal. 

The team will say the initial public offering roadshow has seen "very strong" engagement with over 100 investor meetings in Australia and New Zealand. 

Retail demand, in particular, has been solid with several of the retail networks shutting their books early due to excessive demand. 

A number of local investors have also provided large early indications although the deal will not be cornerstoned, sources said. 

ScotPac's institutional bookbuild will close on June 21 with management spending the balance of this week in Asia and London.

A pricing update is expected later in the week. Goldman Sachs and Citi are running the deal. 

As Street Talk revealed, Scottish Pacific is seeking to raise up to $314.8 million at $3.05 to $3.45 a share. The offer price range valued Scottish Pacific at 13.4-times to 15-times forecast 2017 financial year net profit and would see the company list with up to a $476.8 million market capitalisation. 

Scottish Pacific chief executive Peter Langham, with 31 years experience in debtor finance, and his right hand man Chris Hedge, with another 16-plus years in the industry, fronted investors for day one of the company's IPO investor roadshow last Monday. 

• Share
• Share via Email
• Share on Google Plus
• Post on facebook wall
• Share on twitter
• Post to Linkedin
• Share on Reddit

First NZ Capital and Credit Suisse are quietly testing market appetite for a selldown in New Zealand-listed aviation services company Airwork, fund manager sources told Street Talk on Monday. 

It's understood the brokers are pitching a proposed block trade of controlling shareholder Hugh Jones' 58 per cent stake to Asian and Australian long-only institutions and hedge funds. It's unclear whether Jones is considering selling out, and at what price he would exit.

Auckland-based Airwork is capitalised at $NZ236 million with Jones' shareholding valued at about $NZ136 million. 

The soundings come after Airwork said last week that full-year net income will beat February guidance. Its share price has risen 20-odd per cent this year. 

Jones has a long history with Airwork, becoming a director in 1982 when it was listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange under different ownership. Two years later, he privatised the company along with another investor who he subsequently bought out in 1988.  

• Share
• Share via Email
• Share on Google Plus
• Post on facebook wall
• Share on twitter
• Post to Linkedin
• Share on Reddit

Macquarie Capital's co-head of Australian equity capital markets Angus Firth has taken long service leave. 

Street Talk understands Firth will return to the role in January. 

He became co-head of Australian equity capital markets about three years ago alongside Hugh Falcon. In the role, Firth continued to oversee equity syndication. 

Macquarie ranks in top spot on ECM activity so far in 2016, ahead of UBS and JPMorgan, in what has been a quieter year for transactions.  According to Dealogic, Australia's ECM activity amounts to US$5.3 billion compared to US$17.8 billion at the same time in 2015.

• Share
• Share via Email
• Share on Google Plus
• Post on facebook wall
• Share on twitter
• Post to Linkedin
• Share on Reddit

Amcor's earnings downgrade has prompted analysts at UBS to cut their price target and suggest the packaging group's shares are already factoring in further acquisitions. 

UBS analyst Ramoun Lazar cut his price target to $16.60 from $17.50 citing lower near-term earnings, a higher Australian dollar and cash costs.  The broker has factored in Amcor making US$250m per annum of acquisitions.

A gloomy outlook this week prompted Amcor to warn that profit before interest and tax will fall by $US40 million in 2017, while a a $US350 million writedown attributed to its Venezuelan operations has been flagged for the 2016 financial year.

Amcor will adopt Venezuela's floating exchange rate after supplies of US dollars started to dry up in the past few months, restricting its ability to buy products like resin – which is used for plastic packaging–  in what was once South America's richest nation.

UBS noted, however, that the Venezuela impact on Amcor was "likely isolated to one region" as extreme circumstances prohibited normal operations. 

The analysts expect acquisitions to play a big part in Amcor achieving 10 per cent to 15 per cent total shareholder returns.

"In particular, we see the acceleration in the pace of acquisition in FY16 (US$600m vs 5yr avg US$190m) as systematic of the need to step up M&A activity to offset weak underlying growth conditions.

"We continue to see the US$10 billion Americas market as a logical avenue of growth given the fragmented industry structure and Amcor's under-representation in the region. With Amcor still trading on 19.0x 1 year forward PE, we see today's price already incorporating some of the expected upside from further acquisition activity."

• Share
• Share via Email
• Share on Google Plus
• Post on facebook wall
• Share on twitter
• Post to Linkedin
• Share on Reddit

Sky Network Television boss John Fellet - regarded as one of the best TV rights negotiators in the business - will meet major investors in Sydney on Friday to explain why his deal with Vodafone New Zealand is a win for Sky TV shareholders. 

While shareholders understand the tie-up's logic, it'll all come down to the numbers. 

Fellet is expected to tell major shareholders including Australia's Perpetual and Lazard that the agreed merger ratio priced Sky TV near the top of independent expert Grant Samuel's valuation range and Vodafone NZ near the bottom.

It means Vodafone has - according to the independent expert at least - paid top dollar for Sky TV. Vodafone will receive 51 per cent of the combined entity and $NZ1.25 billion cash as part of the deal.  

Fellet's pitch is expected to be confirmed by Grant Samuel's report, which will be published with the explanatory memorandum in coming days. 

Investors are expected to request more detail on the $NZ850 million expected synergies, which is a big number considering the combined group is worth about $NZ6 billion, including debt. 

Their approval is needed for the deal to be approved. 

Sky TV's ASX-listed shares jumped 20.5 per cent to $5 on Thursday. 

It' also an interesting deal for Australian media executives and dealmakers who have been trying to stitch up their own local version of the Sky TV/Vodafone NZ deal, matching content with mobile distribution. Such a deal seems unlikely while Foxtel is jointly owned by Telstra and News Corporation. 

It'll also be interesting to see whether Vodafone adopts the integration model globally, in an effort to get its hands on content and drive data usage of its own customer base. 

• Share
• Share via Email
• Share on Google Plus
• Post on facebook wall
• Share on twitter
• Post to Linkedin
• Share on Reddit