Good evening,

Private capital behemoth TPG Capital is auctioning off its home-grown crown jewel Novotech with a $4 billion price tag. And dealmakers from at least three rival buyout firms have shown up to appraise the goods.

Street Talk understands TPG, led by Joel Thickins, last week collected non-binding indicative bids for the contract research organisation business, which has been shopped with a headline figure of $125 million pro forma EBITDA for the 2025 financial year.

Sources said Bain Capital, which is neck-deep in several live auctions this half of the calendar year, lobbed a first-round offer. Bain’s participation is a boon for TPG. As this column has noted, Bain’s local dealmakers have the blessing from Boston HQ to run hard at Novotech, not least because of the firm’s success at a 2008 investment in a similar business, Iqvia (née Quintiles), where Bain added nearly $US1 billion in EBITDA before exiting via an IPO seven years later.

Also in the ring are Swedish player EQT Partners, which has been highly acquisitive in Australia over the past two years, and American CVC Capital Partners which is staging a local comeback. EQT teamed up with Goldman Sachs Asset Management to acquire Durham-based Parexel for $US8.5 billion in 2021, while CVC has owned Italian player Genetic since 2020.

That’s at least three credible players that sell-side advisers, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies, would be trying to walk towards the touted $4 billion valuation come binding bids.

But that doesn’t mean Novotech has seduced every PE dealmaker in the town.

Street Talk understands the $US1 trillion-plus Blackstone dropped out of the race ahead of non-binding bids, as did the $US221 billion Partners Group.

• M&A music on replay at Songtradr; $US175m pre-IPO raise under way
• Affinity Equity Partners country head Nick Speer mulls exit
• $3b Queensland unicorn Go1’s investors prep secondary
• Nicole Scurrah’s Create Advisory lands senior Deloitte health partner

• Bain seeks to quaff up Australia’s Accolade Wines, via Chanticleer
• Westpac has backed a new $200 million climate-focused fund from Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s VC spin out Virescent
• Richard White’s alleged lover claims he expected sex for investment

Songtradr, the music licensing rights business and one-time IPO candidate, has been quietly working through a $US175 million ($260 million) raise to pay for its 10th acquisition by Christmas.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.