Investment banks pulling together a potential float of Property Exchange Australia are aiming for a June listing and hope to find cornerstone support next month, sources say.
The electronic property settlements group remains subject to a dual-track process, with an IPO being planned while the business fields offers from trade buyers for the 44 per cent stake in the business owned by Link Administration Holdings.
First round bids from trade buyers are expected at the end of this month with binding offers by June.
Link earlier received a $2.9bn acquisition proposal, or $2bn excluding the Pexa interest, from Pacific Equity Partners and The Carlyle Group.
Sources say price aspirations for the business, of which Morgan Stanley Infrastructure also owns about 40 per cent and CBA the rest, are as high as $3.5bn including debt.
Analysts say a trade sale would almost certainly be off the table if equity investor support implied such a valuation.
No doubt there is fierce debate about the valuation among the four joint lead managers: UBS, Macquarie Capital, Morgan Stanley and the recently launched Barrenjoey Capital.
Barrenjoey is no doubt eager to gain impressive results after being formed with some of the country’s highest-profile deal makers last year.
At the forefront of the minds of prospective investors will be Nuix, which floated as a $1.8bn business and traded impressively after listing only for shares to crash this week to $1.36bn on the back of a downgrade.
Pexa is likely to be promoting the country’s only full-service electronic lodgement network operator and claiming major earnings prospects through overseas expansion, with the group investing $30m in its plan to push deeper into the British market.
Some suspect that CBA is likely to sell down its interest if the company floats, as will be the case with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure.
However, some say that Morgan Stanley Infrastructure would have preferred to have sold its interest next year to coincide with the winding up of its fund.
Bidders include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts with Domain Group, Keppel Corporation and Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
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