Fund managers now have five chunky Alinta Energy reports to wade through in between company results, with Goldman Sachs and Macquarie analysts chipping into the utility's valuation debate on Tuesday.
Macquarie analysts Ian Myles and Avinash Srinivasan told clients that Alinta equity would be worth $2.78 billion to $3.41 billion by the end of the 2017 financial year, which valued the company's Western Australian retail business at 7.8-times to 9-times forward earnings and the east cost retail unit at 10.7-times to 11.-9-times.
The calculation included an expected $753 million net debt.
Meanwhile Goldman Sachs analysts led by Mark Wiseman put a $3.2 billion to $4 billion forward equity value on the company.
Goldman's range was based on a sum of the parts methodology and equated to 9.5-times to 11.5-times forward EBITDA, on an enterprise value to EBITDA basis.
The numbers from both sets of analysts were similar to those applied by fellow sponsor brokers Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and UBS and sent to fund managers on Monday.
To recap, Credit Suisse valued Alinta equity at $2.84 billion to $3.26 billion, UBS was at $2.54 billion to $3.26 billion and Morgan Stanley was at $3.36 billion to $4.22 billion. Morgan Stanley's number included debt.
Alinta, which is owned by a group of private equity and hedge funds, is seeking to list in mid-April. It is expected to seek to raise more than $1 billion for its initial public offering.
