Shake-up in Citi’s top executive line up |UBS nabs block trade at gold miner Ora Ba nda | Findi taps three brokers for cash call

Good evening,

Brisbane-headquartered managed IT services player Veracity Business Solutions is ready to boot up a new owner.

Street Talk can reveal the fast-growing IT firm has mandated InterFinancial Clairfield to drum up bidders for 100 per cent of the business.

Veracity is a full-service IT business that works for clients like the Queensland Government and Experience Gold Coast, specialising in data governance, digital transformation, platform design and managed services. It is majority owned by its managing director, ex PwC director Bill Owens.

Sources said Veracity presents a small but mighty deal for PE dealmakers, given it doesn’t make much sense as a standalone platform investment but ticks several boxes for a decent bolt-on acquisition.
It is forecasting just $1 million in EBITDA, only has 16 employees, and could push harder to increase the share of recurring revenue from the current levels of about 63 per cent of the total.

However, its 22 per cent EBITDA margins and growth profile are expected to warrant a look from PE firms that know the mechanics of IT businesses and have done their homework on the sector’s tailwinds, especially from “digital transformation” projects.
That’s the thematic that has driven deals like EQT Partners′ investment in Nexon, and Telstra’s bet on Versent. There’s also Quadrant Private Equity’s Connetico and Five V’s Mantel Group.

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

Citi’s new investment banking co-heads for Australia and New Zealand, Ben Connolly and Phillippe Perzi, are taking over a business that was among Australia’s top fee earners in 2024, but is nursing an estimated loss of nearly $70 million from a botched Goodman Group block trade in December.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.