AirTrunk suitor GIP set to join rival bidder | Quadrant PE back at APM Group | PEP bankers up for Guardian

Good evening,

It’s exam time for Pacific Equity Partners′ dealmakers, who’ve submitted a non-binding indicative offer for Swiss buyout firm Partners Group’s Guardian Childcare and Education, and will spend the coming weeks grading the $110 million-a-year business’ future prospects.

Street Talk can reveal the $11 billion buyout firm was among parties that tabled first-round offers for Guardian by last week’s deadline. PEP has mandated Stanton Road Partners for advice. It already has school supplies provider Modern Star, but is yet to sink its teeth into a childcare deal.

PEP’s interest comes as the $US149 billion ($227.2 billion) Partners Group resurrects its exit preparations, after being slowed down by the Productivity Commission’s early childhood education review and revised award pay levels for employees. It has owned the business since 2016, when it paid $440 million to buy what was then called Guardian Early Learning from Pan-Asian PE investor Navis Capital.

Sources said the rebooted sale, being run by Morgan Stanley, is fielding interest from financial sponsors but not many trade players are in the mix. In May, Guardian extended about $500 million of borrowings by two years in a deal that saw existing lenders – Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie, ICG and Aware Super – roll into the new facility.

Guardian’s EBITDA for the year to December 31 is now expected to come in at more than $110 million, higher than $80 million to $100 million a year back in 2022.

More than 150,000 children attend Guardian’s 160 centres, most of which are located in capital cities like Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide.

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

Quadrant sold its stake to Madison Dearborn in 2020, which listed APM on the ASX the following year at a $3.8 billion enterprise valuation. Now, its back for a slice.

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