Sydney-based APP Securities has lost another financial adviser, with David Zhou defecting to PhillipCapital, sources told Street Talk. 

Zhou who joined APP's predecessor firm, BBY, 2-1/2 years ago, is said to be starting at stockbroking and foreign exchange firm PhillipCapital this month. 

He joins former APP colleagues Chris Forte and Rob Hughes, both of whom have joined PhillipCapital in recent months. 

Forte was one of the firm's top three revenue writers.  Zhou's departure from APP adds to a string of recent departures including head of research Brett Le Mesurier.

BBY collapsed last year and remnants of the business were acquired by George Wang's AIMS Financial Group. 

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European private equity firm PAI Partners is running the numbers on Australia's Accolade Wines, sources told Street Talk.

As Street Talk revealed on Monday, PAI Partners is performing preliminary due diligence on the Australian wine bottler, seeking to strike as Accolade's biggest shareholder CHAMP Private Equity considers exit options after six years with the company. 

Sources said adviser Rothschild was helping PAI Partners with due diligence. 

An Accolade spokesman declined to comment, while a spokesperson from PAI was not immediately available to comment.

PAI is the largest private equity firm based in France and manages investments worth €8.3 billion ($12.4 billion). Its most recent investments include French pharmaceutical company Ethypharm (€725 million), French budget hotels owner B&B Hotels (€790 million) and Spanish outsourcing provider Grupo Konecta (€321 million). 

Its interest comes as CHAMP and the Accolade team, including adviser Reunion Capital Partners, prepare the wine company for an initial public offering slated for the first half of next year. 

It is expected to be worth more than $1 billion. 

Accolade management met with interested parties in Asia last week, courting potential cornerstone investors as part of the IPO plans. 

Accolade is Australia's second largest wine company, producing 37 million cases of wine annually under an array of brands. However, its largest market is Europe accounting for about 60 per cent of group sales. 

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NZX-listed Pushpay has mandated Ord Minnett to raise $40 million for the company as part of plans to pursue an ASX foreign exempt listing. 

Pushpay said on Monday morning it had engaged Ord Minnett to run a bookbuild for the $40 million private placement, which was expected to occur in early October. 

The bookbuild is expected to be preceded by a pre-marketing to potential investors, while the company also said some of its existing shareholders may sell down their stakes at the raising. 

It would also coincide with the company's plans for a dual-listing. 

Pushpay is a mobile payments business listed in New Zealand and with a head office in the United States. 

The company has a $NZ552.5 million market capitalisation.

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Long-time Woolworths chief financial officer Tom Pockett will oversee car dealership owner Autosports Group's proposed $300 million listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. 

Street Talk can reveal Pockett, who has joined the Insurance Australia Group and Stockland boards since retiring from Woolworths in 2014, will be back in front of fund managers as Autosports' independent chairman. 

Autosports founder and major shareholder Ian Pagent and CEO Nick Pagent will join Pockett around the boardroom table, along with non-executive directors Robert Quant and Malcolm Tilbrook. 

Quant is a member of accounting firm Grant Thornton's international global leadership team, while Tilbrook is a former executive at ANZ Banking Group and its motor vehicle financing businesses including Esanda and New Zealand-based UDC Finance. 

Preparations for Autosports' IPO are on track for marketing to begin in early October. The company is expected to list with about a $300 million market cap in November. 

Elsewhere in IPOs, fellow ASX-aspirant Freedom Insurance has ramped up its own float preparations by lining up former Tower Limited chief David Hancock as chairman.

Street Talk can reveal that Hancock, also a non-executive director of ASX-listed finance company After pay, has agreed to lead Freedom's board.

Freedom is a direct insurance business that provides funeral, accident and life insurance. The company will launch a formal marketing roadshow in early October.

Hancock has been an adviser to Freedom since December. He was chief of dual-listed insurer Tower for more than two years until November and remains a non-executive director. He also previously had a short stint at troubled mortgage group First­folio, now eChoice, and prior to that was head of institutional equities and debt capital markets at CBA. 

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When it comes to Estia Health, it feels like we ain't seen nothing yet. 

If there is anything to take from the advisers swarming all over the embattled aged care operator, its key stakeholders and rivals, it's that there are plenty of pages to be written in the Estia story. 

Street Talk understands investment bank Credit Suisse has established a reasonably new-found relationship with Estia, and is a welcome friend at what is a difficult time for the company. 

While sources said Credit Suisse had not signed a formal defence adviser mandate at Estia, it is believed to be in the box seat. That means the Swiss bank has its nose in front of arch rival UBS, which floated the company in December 2014 and kept close ties to its management team. 

Meanwhile Estia's biggest shareholders are considering their options. 

Capital markets heavyweights Perpetual and Regal Funds Management have almost 25 per cent of the shares on issue between them, while aged care stalwarts the Kennedy family has another 5 per cent. 

There are also a number of swaps and other derivatives at play - with hedge funds keeping a particularly close eye on substantial notices from the equity derivatives specialist Deutsche Bank. Deutsche disclosed a 9.92 per cent stake as at August 30, on behalf of unnamed clients. 

Citi is believed to be sticking close to some of Estia's key investors. And while the investors are understood to be keeping their distance from each other at this stage, one wonders whether they would be tempted to meet up for a cup of tea in coming weeks. 

Meanwhile Macquarie Capital is on hand for its two listed aged care clients; Japara Healthcare and Regis Healthcare. While most of the market's attention is rightly on Estia, the two other heavyweights are also in need of friends.

Elsewhere, KKR-backed Findex is expected to announce its latest acquisition, understood to be a modest sized Melbourne-based accounting practice, as early as this week. 

It comes hot on the heels of news that the Findex-owned accountancy group Crowe Horwath had snapped up the Queensland arm of rival Moore Stephens. 

Findex co-founder and chief executive Spiro Paule has a track record as a bona fide shopaholic having rolled-up more than 45 acquisitions since 2000. 

The pace of consolidation has been turbo-charged since KKR came on board in 2013 to back the buyout of Phil Kearns' Centric Wealth. 

A year later, KKR's deep pockets helped Findex pick up Crowe Horwath, which while deeply troubled was the fifth largest accounting firm in the country, on the cheap for $200 million. 

This raises questions about whether Findex will try to digest any more big acquisitions before KKR looks to exit via an initial public offering.

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