Leather-maker dressed for sale; Bankers target big Australians, Canadians for Telstr a InfraCo stake; CBA’s mooted $3b hybrids d eal shrinks

Good evening,

While blue chips Telstra and CBA featured strongly on dealmakers’ radars on Tuesday, Street Talk’s favourite yarn was a family-owned business shooting for a potentially whopper payday.

Meet AI Topper, one of the country’s biggest producers, processors and exporters of semi-processed and finished hides, skins and leathers, which is up for sale via Grant Samuel.

Street Talk’s spoken to a few parties in the auction, and reckon they were told AI Topper makes $150 million in annual revenue and $45 million EBITDA.

That’s a tidy earner for a business that hasn’t ever featured in The Australian Financial Review. In fact, the only mentions we could find of it were in regional publications where the group has tanneries, or to report on Topper family members’ house trading in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Private equity firms and strategic players are taking a look, trying to work out where AI Topper and the leather industry more generally is headed.

Elsewhere, we’ve spoken to bankers about who may be interested in Telstra’s InfraCo following a shareholder vote on Tuesday, and take a look at CBA’s upcoming hybrid issue.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors