Good evening,

We all know who’s dropped out of the race for MLC Wealth – KKR, IOOF, Macquarie Group etc – but the real news is who’s still in the auction.

Street Talk can reveal that New York investment house CC Capital, founded by a former Blackstone Group bigwig and with investments in financial services, is in the auction’s second round and keen to stick it to rival bidder JC Flowers.

There are others in the mix too, although NAB and its camp are keeping pretty quiet about the details.

Meanwhile, there’s another tech IPO in the pipeline as Hipages dusts off plans for an initial public offering. It has Goldman Sachs and Ashurst preparing a prospectus, and wants to be ready to list in the coming months if the markets are accommodative.

Happy reading,

Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Street Talk Editors