Good evening,

The spotlight’s back on Panthera Finance. Street Talk understands the debt collections outfit has mandated long-time adviser Grant Samuel to launch a sale for a handful of its debt ledger books as a part of an ongoing restructuring review.

Sources said the books were being shopped as high quality and the majority of collections were made under payment arrangements. Established industry players are expected to be targeted, as well as new ones. Panthera is understood to be offering up the books with supporting infrastructure, including ready-to-go collections teams.

Street Talk spotted Grant Samuel on the scene last month, advising Panthera’s owners on ways to unlock value for shareholders. At the time, the corporate adviser was not formally mandated.

But it has kept close to Panthera’s founders, Queensland brothers Jamie and Mathew Hough, after running a debt refinancing in 2022 that ended with Brookfield Special Investments tipping in $150 million to replace an existing lender syndicate.

Panthera bought more than $5.5 billion in receivables in the past two decades, picking up business from banks, utilities and telecommunications companies. The company has been in the throes of an internal restructuring since last year, which has led to it offloading its CBA loan book to ASX-listed Pioneer Credit and making an exit from its auto-lending business. PwC’s corporate restructuring team is also on the case, as this column revealed last month, looking at ways to optimise operations and slash headcount.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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UBS’ list of 25 IPO candidates includes plenty of ghosts from the past.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.