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Toronto-headquartered Northleaf Capital Partners has emerged as a suitor for ProTen, the $1 billion-plus chicken farmer owned by industry super bigwig Aware Super.

Street Talk understands Northleaf’s Melbourne-based infrastructure team, led by Tom Irvine, was among parties that submitted a non-binding indicative bid for ProTen, which produces 174 million birds a year, or about 25 per cent of Australia’s annual consumption. It is being shopped by Macquarie Capital.

Northleaf will be locking horns with US private capital juggernaut KKR and Sydney’s Roc Partners, which originated the deal for Aware back in 2018 and had managed it until last year when Aware started its strategic review.

The Canadian company is understood to be advised by Gresham, while KKR has Citi in its corner and Roc is working with Rothschild.

Aware and its bankers have shopped ProTen as an infrastructure asset, as opposed to an agricultural or industrials business.

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

• Buyout firm Pacific Equity Partners is considering liquidity options for UP Education, which makes about $100 million in earnings and is one of the biggest tertiary education providers in Australia and New Zealand.
• The fall-out between Andy Gray and Tim Reed of Potentia Capital fame has claimed another high-value victim in 40-year-old Michael MacNamara.
• Geoff Wilson has raised $100 million-plus for his latest listed investment company, dubbed WAM Income Maximiser.
• Sydney’s Good Return, an impact investor backed by Spotless Group scion Peter McMullin, is raising a new fund.

• CoStar CEO Andy Florance jets in seeking deal on Domain.
• Billionaire Mathieson backs Bally’s bid for Star with $50 million sweetener.
• NBL owner Larry Kestelman rejected a hostile takeover from the billionaire behind the Illawarra Hawks.
• Brookfield defies Trump pushback on energy transition.

Pacific Equity Partners made more than its initial $190 million investment back on the sale of Academic Colleges Group (ACG Education) in 2019, and is now looking at a near billion-dollar payday from the rump tertiary business called UP Education.

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