Nine tests PE interest in Domain | Vale Maartensz | Indebted kicks off funding round

Good evening,

Nine Entertainment has been a painfully dull client for its long-time banker, Jefferies’ Michael Stock. Since the Nine-Fairfax Media merger in 2018, it’s been quiet on the home front as far as corporate deal-doing goes – bar some chatter earlier this year that the Nine banker had canvassed major private equity firms to gauge their interest in the company’s controlling stake in Domain.

But Street Talk understands Stock has hit the phones again on behalf of his client, seeking to test their interest in its stake in the $1.8 billion ASX-listed residential and commercial property listing platform.

Sources said Jefferies’ top banker had again reached out to a handful of large private equity firms including US giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR), Blackstone and TPG Capital, and Swedish private capital investor EQT over the past three months to take their temperature on a deal. Up for discussion was selling Nine’s 60 per cent stake in Domain, which makes up about 50 per cent of the media group’s $2.1 billion market capitalisation.

Domain’s market performance has lagged behind its larger rival, News Corp-backed REA Group, for years (REA trades at a higher multiple). Whatever Stock’s intentions, there does not appear to be a deal on the table currently.

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

Digital debt collection firm InDebtedis close to ruling off a capital raising that will give it a higher valuation and provide the financing it needs to further expand into the United States.

The Australian sharemarket ended the session flat on Wednesday after a rally in supermarket giant Woolworths helped offset losses in mining companies.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.