Street Talk

Bankers circle Chemist Warehouse founders’ $16b-plus stake

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Apr 21, 2025 – 6.29pm

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It’s time for the big guns to come out at the $34 billion Sigma Healthcare amid a wave of selling triggered by Chemist Warehouse’s reverse listing.

Sources told this column Australia’s biggest investment banks – galvanised by the prospect of another lean year on the fees front – are throwing everything they’ve got at wooing Chemist Warehouse co-founders Jack Gance, Sam Gance and Mario Verrocchi, ahead of the first leg of expiries on escrows or selling restrictions.

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.