Ontario Teachers mulls selling stake in Spark NZ towers | BGH Capital bankers up for SingPost Au | New $100m float

Good evening,

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is mulling whether it should sell a slice of Kiwi telco Spark NZ’s passive mobile towers, just over two years after it won an auction to buy a majority stake at a $NZ1.175 billion ($1 billion) valuation.

Street Talk understands the $C256 billion ($277 billion) pensions bigwig is weighing up if it makes sense to part with a slice of its 83 per cent stake in Connexa, owner of about 2400 or two thirds of New Zealand’s cell towers that are used by telcos like Chorus, One NZ and 2 Degrees.

Sources said the pension behemoth is yet to make a final decision, and there is no certainty it would launch a deal. However, should it pull the trigger, Bank of America, which helped it win the Connexa acquisition in 2022, would be well-placed to land the sell-side gig.

Of note, Spark NZ, New Zealand’s largest telco that is capitalised at nearly $5 billion on the ASX, is still holding on to the remaining 17 per cent of Connexa. And, given its steep share price decline, there are questions over whether Spark’s CEO Jolie Hodson would join Ontario Teachers’ mooted selldown.

The dual-listed telco is in a world of pain – its share price has nosedived 44 per cent over the past 12 months and earnings have been hit by New Zealand’s recession. Cherry on the top? An A- credit rating from S&P, and a capital-hungry data centre business.

Hodson and her chairwoman Justine Smyth know the hole they’re in, and were spotted speed dating potential investors in Sydney earlier this month. Although – we are told – the unofficial roadshow was canned after word of it leaked in NZ newspapers.

Clearing out of Connexa looks like an easy way out.

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

IPO candidate Vitrafy Life Sciences, crawling with ex Virtus Health executives and backed by Regal, has hit the pavement for a $100 million-plus float just as it begins to print revenue.

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