From the desk of Leigh Golombick - M&A in Oz

From the desk of 

M&A/ECM Update: 

- SocietyOne are expected to set an offer price for its planned IPO in a range between $2.75 and $3.25 per share. This will give the Aus personal lender a valuation of around $230m. The company is seeking to raise $60m

- The Vic Gov has appointed Morgan Stanley to manage the privatisation process of its motor registry unit VicRoads. They expect three firms to commence an auction process later this year, with infrastructure funds such as Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, Utilities Trust of Australia, The Infrastructure Fund, and Aware Super

- Lendlease , GPT, Brookfield and Investa are considered the main contenders to take control of AMP Capital Wholesale Office Fund (AWOF)

- Wavenet, a UK-based cloud telecoms services provider generating turnover of more than GBP 60m, has been sold by private equity backer Beech Tree to Macquarie Capital Principal Finance

- One Rail Australia owners Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and PGGM have started sending marketing materials to seek potential buyers of the Australia rail freight and coal transport company One Rail Australia. This is one of the biggest rail operators in Aus and could be valued at more $2.5bn. #finance #investment #infrastructure #mergers #acquistions

Self Driving Forklifts - a game changer

Phantom Auto has created software that enables forklifts to be operated remotely from thousands of miles away. 

 Bloomberg reports that they have done a deal with Mitsubishi Logisnext Co (the third-biggest company in the $45 billion-plus global market for forklifts. ) 

This will enable Kyoto-based Mitsubishi Logisnext to offer forklifts that can rove around a warehouse in California, controlled by workers sitting at a desk a continent away. 

“We’re moving warehouse workers into office jobs,” says Elliot Katz, Phantom Auto co-founder and chief business officer. 

Because it removes geographic labor restrictions and improves efficiency as drivers can be “teleported” into factories experiencing surges, the software offers the potential to knock 30% or more off forklift operation costs, Katz say

Phantom Auto is an OurCrowd portfolio company - who in April 2019 raised $13.5 million of financing in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners 

Welcome to the #nexttechrevolution! 

#nexttech #bsiinnovation #innovation #ai #robotics #selfdriving 

Safety Culture becomes a Unicorn

Luke Anear, Founder and CEO of  SafetyCulture, a Sydney-based global operations platform which empowers working teams to drive improvements in the workplace, raised $73m at a $1.6 billion valuation.

The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors Tiger Global, Index Ventures and Blackbird.

The funds will b use to expand the business as it continues to evolve from a checklist app into an operations platform for working teams. 

What it does 

Safety Culture provides a mobile operations platform that leverages the power of human observation to identify issues and opportunities for businesses to improve everyday life.

The Story

While working in a workers comp business - Luke wondered, why are all these people getting injured at work in the first place? Surely, there should be a way to make workplaces safer?

For the first 9 years, the business grew slowly to around $300K revenue a year as, as Luke freely admits, “no one really used our products, which was a safety training platform and then some document management systems.”

In 2019 the business turn over was more than $100M with 300 staff in 5 offices (including one each in Kansas, Manchester and Manila).

Today, More than 28,000 organisations use its flagship products, iAuditor and EdApp, to perform checks, train staff, report issues, automate tasks and communicate fluidly. 

The platform has over 1.5M users in more than 85 countries.