IFM Investors and AustralianSuper have made an unsolicited approach to buy NSWs' biggest electricity network company, Ausgrid.

NSW Premier Mike Baird announced on Friday that the government was considering the proposal.

"The Government can receive unsolicited proposals at any time and has a thorough process in place to assess such proposals," Mr Baird said.

It comes as NSW prepares to run an auction for Ausgrid, after failing to sell a 50.4 per cent stake in the business earlier this year.

Sources said the two investors, who are proposing to buy the stake as part of a consortium, had approached the government soon after the Ausgrid auction failed, and firmed up its interest more recently.

The up-for-sale Ausgrid stake is expected to be worth more than $10 billion.

In a joint statement on Friday, IFM chief executive Brett Himbury and AustralianSuper chief executive Ian Silk said: "AustralianSuper and IFM Investors are pleased to jointly submit this unique proposal and, if we are ultimately successful, intend to manage the asset in a responsible, considered manner over the long term."

The all-Australian bid is not expected to require Foreign Investment Review Board approval.

NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said the government would give the proposal full consideration but was preparing to re-launch the Ausgrid auction as planned.

It would be highly unusual - although not unprecedented - for a government to sell such as asset without going to auction.

Victoria sold its Golden Casket lotteries business to Tatts in 2007, while Queensland negotiated a bilateral deal with QIC Ltd for the Queensland Motorways tollroads portfolio in 2010.

The unsolicited proposal process has been controversial in NSW since it was used to give Crown a license to operate a casino and build a hotel at Barangaroo without a competitive tender in 2013.

It is understood that the Ausgrid bid has now passed the first of three stages in assessing a proposal. The Department of Premier and Cabinet has deemed it of sufficient interest to warrant further development and progression to a more defined project.

The government said a final decision on the AustralianSuper and IFM proposal would be made later this year.

Treasurer Berejiklian has promised to bank the cash from the Ausgrid sale before the next budget in June 2017.

Shadow treasury spokesman Ryan Park said Ausgrid should be sold at an open auction.

"I would be very concerned if there wasn't a competitive bidding process underway going forward because that would no doubt impact on the price and that's bad news for NSW taxpayers," Mr Park said.

The Ausgrid proposal comes as the NSW government's team have been marketing the power network to potential offshore investors in recent weeks, seeking support for the upcoming auction.

Those offshore investors, including well-known Canadian pension funds who are no strangers to Australian infrastructure assets, are waiting on the auction's foreign investment rules.

Foreign investment eligibility is the biggest issue heading into the Ausgrid auction, following the failure of an earlier auction last month.

Treasurer Scott Morrison block bids from Hong Kong's Chueng Kong Infrastructure and China's State Grid Corporation of China on grounds of national interest.

Trade minister Steve Ciobo said this week that the sale was blocked because of something "very particular about Ausgrid" involving "critical power and communications services that Ausgrid provides to business and government."

It seems likely IFM and AustralianSuper are seeking to appeal to the government's willingness to find a local buyer for Ausgrid.

The pair is already two of Australia's biggest infrastructure investors, with stakes in tollroads, ports, airports and other utilities.

The two teamed up to buy Port Botany and Port Kembla from NSW in 2013, as part of a consortium that paid $5.1 billion for the ports.

They also bid separately for a stake in NSW electricity transmission company TransGrid last year.

IFM Investors narrowly missed out on a stake in the Port of Melbourne this week, taking a leading role in the losing $9.7 billion bid for Australia's busiest container port.

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There's a big debate brewing about whether the ASX needs to clamp down on trading halts for block trades. 

There some outspoken investors who reckon it is an embarrassment and grossly unfair that a company's shares can be halted while one big shareholder dumps its stake. Why not stick to the practice of after-market and overnight block trades, where no halts are required? 

It's an issue that has now popped up twice in the past month, including at Charter Hall on Thursday. 

Both Charter Hall Group and Charter Hall Retail REIT requested halts so that major shareholder The Gandel Group could sell its $500 million stake. 

The ASX accepted the trading halt requests as Gandel's broker Macquarie Securities went about finding owners for the stock. Macquarie even ran a bookbuild for the Charter Hall Group shares seeking bids in 2¢ increments from the $5 a security floor price. 

Going into trading halts and launching the trade during market hours meant Macquarie, the underwriter, could get the best price for the vendor Gandel and reduce its own risk. And doing it during market hours meant fund managers were only a click or two away from their Charter Hall models, while the company itself was even out marketing to potential buyers. 

Going into a halt for a selldown is by the book and passable with ASX listing rules. But should it really be that way? 

Should ASX really grant a trading halt to allow Gandel - and possibly its broker - to financially benefit by running a selldown during market hours, arguably at the expense of other Charter Hall shareholders?

Surely the exchange operator's job is to keep listed companies' shares trading. 

Remember brokers - and especially Macquarie - are adept at handling block trades either before or after market.

UBS, for example, got Pacific Equity Partners out of its $873 million Link Group stake in an after market trade a fortnight ago. Same at Caltex Australia last year, when Chevron waited until after market to sell its 50 per cent stake worth $4.7 billion. 

So if the ASX is granting trading halts for these sorts of trades, where does it stop? 

What if an institutional shareholder like Perpetual wanted to offload its 5 per cent stake in Woolworths? Could it get Woolworths to go into a halt and give Macquarie or UBS or Citi all day to find the best price? 

Or if Capital Group wanted to sell its $1.47 billion stake in Amcor, should Amcor ask for a halt while Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse found the best price? 

Trading halts are great for helping companies issue new shares and quickly raise capital via accelerated bookbuilds and placements.

But to allow a shareholder to sell down? It's rare in a global context.  

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Deutsche Bank has confirmed Street Talk's report on Thursday that it will close its local wealth management business in Australia and service clients from regional "hubs" in Singapore and Hong Kong. 

The exit follows similar moves by other bulge bracket investment banks, including UBS, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which have put the shutters down on Australian private wealth operations to focus on core investment banking products and services.

"The restructuring of our business in Australia is in line with Deutsche Bank's Strategy 2020, which aims to achieve a simpler and more efficient organisation, and the global wealth management strategy to serve clients through selected, scalable hubs," a Deutsche Bank  spokesman said.  

"Our immediate priority is to support those employees who are affected and to work with our wealth management clients to transition their business to alternative providers of their choice."

The transition of client activities to alternative providers is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.

Deutsche's wealth management business has been offering high-net-worth clients advisory, portfolio management and lending services. The bank does not disclose assets under management or the number of clients. 

This column flagged the closure last week, noting that some executives in Asia have been arguing the unit, which has been subjected to numerous reviews over the years, is not profitable on a standalone basis and has been propped up by revenues from other areas such as margin lending.

The investment banking retreat from private wealth reflects changes to distribution channels and pressures on fees, including from the new breed of digital financial advisers. The area also comes with reputation risk given conduct scandals in the big commercial banks and Macquarie in recent years emanated from wealth divisions. 

When UBS exited the wealth management industry in Australia this year, the staff acquired the business which has been rebranded Crestone. 

Crestone and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management have taken a knife to their commission payments this year in an attempt to make their business models more sustainable. 

Credit Suisse remains keen on private banking in Australia and is hoping to capitalise on the retreat by some of its global rivals. 

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The information memorandum for the sale of skip bin and waste management group Bingo Industries will be sent today to potential trade buyers and financial investors.

The IM will show the company is expected to make about $200 million in revenue for the current financial year. First round bids are due in late October.

Bingo's sales flyer said the group has clocked up a revenue compound annual growth rate of 65 per cent since financial year 2014, and is forecast to grow to $268 million by 2019. 

Bingo has been pitched as a fast-growing commercial and liquid waste business, servicing the building and construction industry. The flyer sent to potential buyers said: "The Australian waste industry generated more than 53 million tonnes in CY15, representing more than $14 billion revenue. By CY20, the sector is forecast to grow to $16.8 billion."

Macquarie Capital started testing market interest in Bingo in May.

Waste management is familiar territory for local private equity dealmakers. KKR sold the Cleanaway part of Bis Industries to Transpacific for $1.25 billion in 2007, before Warburg Pincus took a stake in TPI

Then there was Ironbridge which owned EnviroWaste, while China's Beijing Capital Group bought Transpacific's New Zealand business in a 2014 auction.

An initial public offering is still under consideration for Bingo. 

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Mark Carnegie's venture capital firm has sold its stake in biscuit maker Modern Baking for the grand sum of $1. 

Sources said MH Carnegie & Co offloaded the investment last week and was happy enough to get its loan back, let alone worry too much about the equity. 

Suffice to say, it is unlikely to go down as one of the firm's more memorable investments. Modern Baking owns the Unibic brand and manufactures Anzac biscuits.  

MH Carnegie took the stake in July 2014 through its SalesLink business, and had been seeking to bolt on a few other fast-moving consumer goods to the investment. 

At the time, the deal was trumpeted as the first venture since a consortium of investors including Gerry Harvey, John Singleton and MH Carnegie took a 40 per cent stake in SalesLink. 

The sale comes as James Burns and James Rothel left Modern Baking's board, while Gregory Randle stepped into their place according to documents lodged with the corporate regulator. 

Originally called Universal Biscuits, Modern Baking has less than $50 million in revenues, employs around 150 staff and manufactures biscuits and other products at its Melbourne facility. The company was founded in the 1950s and has a 22,000 square metre facility in Melbourne's Broadmeadows. 

Elsewhere, sleep devices company Compumedics has raised $6.5 million in a placement and selldown handled by PAC Partners. 

The stockbroker raised $4.5 million for the placement at 54¢ a share and sold another $2 million of stock on behalf of 60 per cent shareholder David Burton and chief financial officer David Lawson. 

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