Good evening,

We all know the IPO market has soured - but bankers just keep lining up the contenders.

This time it’s CIMIC and Apollo Global-backed services giant Ventia, which we can reveal had a secret round of meetings with fund managers last month to gauge their appetite in a potential listing.

Ventia would be a blockbuster float; a big, profitable business, with forecast revenue of more than $5 billion and earnings likely to be north of $450 million this year. And it could be structured in a way to overcome the negative sentiment towards new listings.

Elsewhere, Mercury Capital has drafted in UBS to sell one of its big assets, while Real Asset Management has called in the bankers for its Essential Services Property Fund REIT.

And we report on the latest from Credit Suisse, whose turn it is to feel the heat in the most recent round of banker poachings.

Happy reading
Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Street Talk Editors