Street Talk

Aware Super, Roc calls in bankers at $1b No.1 chicken farmer ProTen

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Jun 16, 2024 – 7.12pm

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The $175 billion Aware Super has fattened up its chicken farming business ProTen to No.1 in the country over six years of ownership. Now, it has called in Macquarie Capital’s bankers to set the wheels in motion for a juicy payday.

Street Talk can reveal Aware and Sydney agribusiness investor Roc Partners have mandated MacCap to run a strategic review of ProTen’s capital structure. Sources said the immediate task at hand was to secure a refinance for ProTen, after which a sale process was slated to get under way. Of note, that’s precisely the course of events playing out at $4 billion bus group Kinetic.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.