Investors' seemingly endless romance with both tech and property stocks will get yet another opportunity to blossom, with regional real estate portal PropertyGuru lining up as a candidate for the 2017 initial public offering pipeline.

It's not the first run at the boards for PropertyGuru, which postponed preparations for a float in late 2014 as choppy equity markets put a halt to tech listings in particular

A lot has happened since then. Midway through last year a private equity consortium including Paul Bassat's Square Peg Capital injected $S175 million into the south-east Asian platform which is based in Singapore.

​That consortium included global private equity giant TPG, Indonesia's largest media group Emtek, and Square Peg, the Australian private equity group focused on tech and online companies.

Macquarie Capital advised on that deal and would be well-placed to oversee next year's IPO.

Square Peg was co-founded by Wesfarmers director Paul Bassat, who also co-founded jobs site, Seek.

Their investment in PropertyGuru, took out the stake held by German real estate portal Scout24, while adding a significant amount of fresh capital to develop the business.

Scout24 was of course then home for former REA chief executive Greg Ellis. 

And it's the example of REA, now a $7 billion stock, that will be front of mind for the owners and potential investors into any PropertyGuru float. 

Disruption has hit the real estate market as hard as any other. As property buyers and sellers look to bypass the fees made by real-world intermediaries, it is online platforms that are collecting their trade. 

And as the Australian market gets saturated, investment into disruption has to go offshore. There is a big growth market for PropertyGuru, with 500 million people in its southeast Asian catchment.

The platform is eager to expand. Its latest move is to invest in Vietnam's Batdongsan, thereby gaining a foothold in one of the fastest growing countries in the region.

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Autosports Group is not just another roll-up. 

Get that fundies? Don't think about the car dealership group, which has grown from one Audi site in 2006 to 27 facilities, as just another roll-up. 

That's the message from Autosports' sponsor brokers Macquarie Capital and UBS, who released their detailed pre-initial public offering marketing reports on Thursday as revealed by Street Talk. 

While being a roll-up used to be a good thing in the land of small caps, now brokers go to lengths to demonstrate why something like Autosports is not just another multiple-arbitrage play that will keep hoovering up smaller rivals using its premium listed stock trading price. 

Macquarie told clients that Autosports had grown from eight facilities in in the 2014 financial year to 27 in 2017. It has posted strong like-for-like sales growth in past years and reckons it should be able to achieve 8.7 per cent this financial year. 

But the broker reckons a lot of the growth comes from greenfields sites, established in prior years, which are beginning to mature. 

Autosports is coming to market expecting $1.45 billion revenue in the 2017 financial year, up from $1.27 billion last year and $1.039 billion the year before. 

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were forecast to be $52.3 million in FY17, up from $41.1 million in 2016. Net profit after tax and amortisation is expected at $28.3 million, up from $21.1 million. 

Fundies will be quick to compare it to rival car dealership owners Automotive Holdings Group and AP Eagers.

The brokers put 14 to 18-times price-to-earnings multiples on the stock, which would value Autosports' equity at up to $512.2 million.

Macquarie's team, headed by Andrew Wackett, was more bullish than its counterparts over at UBS.

It's expected to seek to raise up to $250 million towards the end of the month. Former Woolworths chief financial officer Tom Pockett lines up as chairman. 

And now some news from our eye in the Sky.

Media group Global Traffic Network, which supplies media outlets with traffic reports, is edging closer to a deal that will see it grab a foothold in the United States. 

US traffic supplier Radiate Media struck an agreement with the recently-listed Global Traffic Network in April that gave GTN an exclusive option to buy all of the assets of Radiate. The option expired on September, but could be extended to December 31 for a nominal sum.

Sources told Street Talk GTN was preparing to exercise that option and has the strong support of investors.

Indeed, since the company's results on August 31, when it said due diligence on Radiate was continuing, the stock has risen from $2.49 to a record high of $3.41 on October 4 in anticipation of a deal. The shares closed at $3.14 on Thursday. 

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Kerry Stokes' Seven Group Holdings has amassed a secret stake in embattled aged-care operator Estia Health.

Street Talk understands Seven's recent buying has the media and mining services conglomerate sitting just below the 5 per cent substantial shareholding mark.

It's understood the Estia Health stake sits in Seven Group's clandestine listed investment portfolio, which is overseen by Seven Group managing director Ryan Stokes, and is meant to be a long-term bet on Australia's aged care sector. It's a gutsy move for the Stokeses, who sit alongside the likes of Perpetual and the Kennedy family as shareholders.

Estia Health is coming off a horror run that has seen the share price tumble 56 per cent this year.

The company is desperately seeking to open a new chapter in its relatively short corporate history, with one of the founders, chief executive, chief financial officer and representatives of former owner Quadrant Private Equity all gone in the past six weeks.

It's now up to the new management team – albeit an acting team headed by former Summerset Group Holdings boss and Estia Health non-executive director Norah Barlow – to regain the market's trust. It will be a big task.

They took their first tentative steps on Thursday, re-issuing 2017 financial year earnings guidance.

The company which operates more than 5700 aged care places around Australia said underlying earnings before interest tax, deprecation and amortisation would be between $86 million to $90 million, down from the $105 million forecast issued at its full-year results only 37 days ago.

Estia Health shares finished the day down 10¢ or 3.03 per cent, to $3.20.

Estia Health's supporters – and the hedge funds with significant bets against the company – will be keeping a close watch over coming months, as the management team works through the current strategic review and rebuilds both management and board ranks.

There is particular concern in some quarters about Estia Health's balance sheet. Chairman Pat Grier told shareholders he would provide an update on its liquidity position and the strategic review at the annual general meeting on November 23.

As for Seven Group, the investment portfolio is the fourth pillar in its strategy and has proved an invaluable and steady influence on company earnings in past years as its mining services, media and energy arms battled through challenging positions. However, the 2016 financial year was one to forget, with the portfolio off 8.2 per cent while the benchmark S&P/ASX200 gained 2.2 per cent.

Seven Group's property and listed investments portfolio was worth $621 million as at June 30.

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Silicon Valley-based Partners for Growth is close to finalising another local transaction as it sets up shop in Australia.

Street Talk can reveal the debt-solutions firm is putting the finishing touches on a financing deal in the local retail sector. That will bring its transaction tally in Australia to 18.  

It comes as PFG establishes an office presence in Sydney with managing director Jason Georgatos relocating to Australia to spearhead regional efforts. He has already hired former banker and Evolution Healthcare investment manager Karthi Sepulohniam, and plans to add further headcount over time. 

The Australian push, which will also facilitate a ramping up in Asia, will see the firm target a string of local sectors, excluding property.

In February, this column revealed that PFG provided a $20 million loan for payday lender Nimble Money. It also provided a cash injection to cloud services company Employment Innovations and helped to fund hospital group Healthe Holdings in its early days. 

PFG finances small-and-medium companies and has deployed more than $100 million in capital here since 2007, according to sources. 

The firm focuses on lending to companies with annual revenue of $5 million to $75 million. Sources said PFG so far had a low loss rate on investments, only losing money on one of its investments. 

The risk profile of the loans may, however, be greater as PFG seeks to plug gaps left open by traditional banks. Large Australian banks often require personal property as collateral when they lend to small business owners. 

Elsewhere, AIMS Financial Group and its head of property funds, Michael Goldman, have parted ways.

Goldman joined AIMS in 2011 after a stint at National Australia Bank, according to his LinkedIn profile. George Wang founded AIMS in 1991.

 

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A lender to the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), part-owned by Australia's biggest coal miner Glencore, has traded its debt exposure, as revealed by Street Talk on Thursday.  

It's understood Lloyds Bank sold $148 million worth of WICET debt with the auction held earlier in the week. 

The British bank offloaded the debt directly to four hedge funds via its internal sales desk with the price said to be pegged at 79¢.

The coal terminal is owned by eight miners, which have take-or-pay contracts with WICET.

It's the first crack in WICET's lending group, who are sitting on steep paper losses about five years after committing to the project. 

The syndicate was put together by ANZ Banking Group, and there are multiples layers to the capital structure including a big piece of subordinated debt owned by IFM Investors. 

In June, the company tapped Fort Street Advisers to help devise a $2 billion-plus restructuring plan for the debt-laden facility.

It's been a drawn out process after Glencore last year pitched a refinancing deal to WICET with the help of Morgan Stanley and ANZ.

Now there is a price set, it will be interesting to see how long until the next piece of debt trades. 

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