A fortnight ago, telecommunications minnow Uniti Wireless popped on to small cap fundies' radars.

Uniti had hired Vaughan Bowen - the man that built M2 Telecommunications into a  $2.25 billion takeover target and boosted the returns of plenty of small cap managers along the way.

He joined Michael Simmons - Uniti's CEO and another M2 alumnus - to help with the company's strategic expansion, including potential M&A.

And sure enough, Uniti has made its first M&A move.

The company is seeking to buy Spirit Telecom Ltd; another listed telecommunications company with a $45 million market cap.

Uniti confirmed the plans on Friday afternoon. The company said it had made a non-binding indicative offer to acquire 100 per cent of Spirit Telecom via a scheme of arrangement.

Uniti Wireless shares were up  19.1 per cent to 50¢ on the news. Spirit Telecom shares were up 54 per cent to 18.5¢.

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Buyout firm Quadrant Private Equity has knocked another fund raising out of the park.

The private equity market's most prolific dealmaker and fund raiser easily exceeded a $300 million target for its new growth fund,  less than a month after launching the cash call.

Street Talk can reveal Quadrant executive chairman Chris Hadley signed off on a $400 million raising in Sydney on Thursday, underpinning the firm's decision to diversify into the smaller end of the market.

"This afternoon we held the required meetings and signed documents giving effect to the new Quadrant Growth Fund," Quadrant chairman Chris Hadley told limited partners, in a note obtained by Street Talk.

"We have accepted applications to the maximum cap of $400 million. The applications received from existing investors were considerably in excess of the size of the fund.

"The $400 million of external investment was allocated exclusively to existing investors continuing our position of prioritising our long-term partners. "

Hadley told investors his team already had a pipeline of potential deals and was ready to start investing.

Quadrant Growth Fund will be led by one of the firm's managing partners, Justin Ryan, and fellow partner Simon Pither. The pair is expected to hire another three dealmakers to round out the team.

The fund will focus on the small-to-medium enterprise market, family businesses and growth-oriented companies with $5 million to $10 million annual earnings.

It is expected to seek to write equity cheques worth $30 million to $50 million.

QGF was pitched to investors as Quadrant's 10th fund. Investors were told gross investment returns since the firm started in 1996 and across 57 exits averaged out at a 2.8-times multiple of money invested and 35 per cent internal rate of return.

Quadrant's existing investors include Australia's Future Fund, Commonwealth Superannuation Corp, TelstraSuper, Local Government Super and Statewide Super, according to disclosures from the respective funds.

Its current investment portfolio includes chocolates company Darrell Lea, after school care provider Junior Adventures Group, gyms business Fitness & Lifestyle Group, Qscan Radiology Clinics and a stake in care dealer Peter Warren Automotive.

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It feels like groundhog day.

Wealth platform owner Powerwrap and its brokers are in front of potential investors pitching the company's proposed initial public offering.

Powerwrap is seeking to raise $15 million in a deal valuing the company at $72 million on a market capitalisation basis, according to terms seen by Street Talk.

The raising would be done at 35¢ a share, or 4.5-times forecast 2019 financial year platform revenue on a proforma basis.

Fund managers have been told the raising comes with significant cornerstone support which - according to the pitch - means this time is different. Powerwrap has lined up for a sharemarket listing a few times in recent years, conducting multiple roadshows, only to postpone its listing plans.

Bell Potter Securities is sole financial adviser and joint lead manager with Baillieu.

Potential investors were told Powerwrap is a specialist investment platform owner with $7.65 billion in funds under administration as at March 25, and forecast to grow to $9.8 billion in the 2020 financial year.

Its pitch is based on Australia's $854 billion investment platform market - which Powerwrap says is forecast to grow 9.4 per cent a year over the coming five years - and

Funds raised would be used for working capital and capital expenditure.

Revenue is forecast to be $17.5 million in the 2019 financial year and $20.8 million in 2020, while it would make a $5.2 million loss at the EBITDA line this financial year and a $3 million loss next year.

Potential investors were asked to think about wealth firm Escala Partners' new strategic partnership with KKR-backed American firm Focus Financial Partners, which is slated to increase Escala's footprint. Powerwrap has a six-year exclusive platform service agreemenet signed with Escala, and Escala accounts for about 40 per cent of the company's annual revenue.

Ex-National Mutual/AXA executive Anthony Wamsteker lines up as Powerwrap's non-executive chairman, while Capitol Health director Richard Loveridge, ex-Credit Suisse banker David Lamm and Villa World director Donna Hardman are non-executive directors.

Should the IPO take place, Powerwrap would come to market with $22.6 million cash and cash equivalents based on December 31 numbers, and assets worth $28.8 million.

Fund managers have been told to expect Powerwrap's pathfinder prospectus on April 9, while the company would seek to start trading on the ASX on May 14.

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AMP Capital, Australian Ethical and Microequities Asset Management are believed to be among funds to buy shares in software company ReadyTech's initial public offering.

Brokers Macquarie Capital and Wilsons were finalising allocations on Thursday night, following a $50 million IPO bookbuild for the market debutant.

The allocations capped a dramatic day for ReadyTech.

The company's private equity owner, Pemba Capital, earlier agreed to cut the IPO price, size and change the nature of its escrow, to ensure it had the required support and the IPO got away.

It is understood the late decision to restructure the offer helped lure in the likes of AMP Capital, Australian Ethical and Microequities, and a bunch of other funds were also awaiting news of allocations on Thursday night.

The re-cut IPO, revealed by Street Talk, saw ReadyTech raise $50 million at $1.51 a share, which was 10.9-times forecast 2019 EBITDA. The company is slated to list with a $121 million market capitalisation and $139 million enterprise value on April 17.

Pemba will own a 43.2 per cent stake on listing, while ReadyTech CEO Marc Washbourne would retain 5 per cent of the company's shares on issue.

Half of the pre-IPO investors' stake will be released from escrow this time next year, following ReadyTech's results for the half year ended December 31, while the other half will be released one year later.

However, there is an early release provision which would allow the stake to be sold in full mid next year should ReadyTech be trading well ahead of its IPO price. Luminis Partners advised the company.

At $50 million, ReadyTech is the biggest Australian IPO this year. How it trades in the secondary market is likely to be an important litmus test for the year's other sharemarket float candidates.

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One of the biggest funders to private equity buyouts and refinancings is set to hand back the keys to his bank's whopping balance sheet.

Street Talk understands Russell Sinclair, who is head of loan syndications and acquisition finance at Westpac Banking Corp, is set to leave the Australian bank.

Sources said Sinclair would depart Westpac in mid-April, wrapping up more than a decade at the bank.

Sinclair is well known to private equity firms and bankers, having signed off on billions of dollars worth of finance in his time at Westpac.

Sources said he was involved in most of the major buyouts over the past decade, lending to the likes of KKR, Pacific Equity Partners and Blackstone Group.

Sinclair is also a former board member of the country's private equity industry association, AVCAL.

The move comes as banks face stiff competition from an emerging group of institutional lenders, who are offering unitranche funding structures to private equity firms. BGH Capital, for example, tapped the likes of HPS, Nomura and KKR to provide $1.15 billion funding for its Navitas bid. [National Australia Bank was also in the lending syndicate].

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