Property Exchange Australia float on track for June

Pexa’s advisers have been scheduling equity investor meetings for the electronic property settlements company to test interest in an IPO for least 44 per cent of the business versus a sale.

Investment banks testing market interest for an initial public offering of Property Exchange Australia are believed to be forging ahead for a potential listing next month despite recent deals being shelved due to market volatility.

An interesting test will be the float of Pepper Money on Tuesday, with some in the market lowering their expectations of its performance after its recently listed peers, Liberty Financial and Latitude, came off the boil.

Pepper, owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is set to come to market with a $1.3bn market value, raising $500.1m with shares sold at $2.89 each.

The size of the raising was increased on the back of strong demand.

The stock is slightly more expensive than listed peer Resimac but cheaper than Liberty Financial.

It comes after Allegro Funds pulled the float of Best & Less on Friday. It had plans to raise about $72.3m, taking its market value to about $271.2m.

The price equated to four times the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Macquarie Capital and Bell Potter had been working on that float.

Pexa’s advisers have been scheduling equity investor meetings for the electronic property settlements company to test interest in an IPO for least 44 per cent of the business versus a sale.

Link Administration Holdings, which owns a 44 per cent interest in Pexa, is assessing market interest for a sale or IPO of its stake after receiving a $2.9bn buyout proposal for the entire business from Pacific Equity Partners and The Carlyle Group.

It may opt to divest the interest via a trade sale.

The four IPO joint lead managers are UBS, Macquarie Capital, Morgan Stanley and Barrenjoey Capital.

Sources say some existing shareholders in Link are prepared to cornerstone the offer. Potential buyers include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts with Domain Group and Dye and Durham.