Australia/New Zealand Equity House: Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs reclaimed the top spot in Australasian ECM in 2024, leading the largest transactions, catching the key themes and timing the market perfectly to raise funds for clients.
While bulge-bracket firms were not shy to commit their balance sheets to win business and boutique firms expanded aggressively, Goldman fought its way to the top of the Australia/New Zealand equity and equity-linked league table. It raised A$4.4bn (US$2.7bn) through 14 transactions, according to LSEG data.
The US bank led the pack in follow-ons, convertible bonds and blocks, and arranged the largest IPO in Australia in six years.
Fundraising by data centre operators was a big theme in Asia Pacific in 2024, as they rushed to take advantage of falling interest rates and strong growth forecasts from artificial intelligence and cloud companies.
In October, Goldman helped diversified alternative asset manager HMC Capital raise A$300m from a placement to fund the acquisition of data centre owner Global Switch Australia, a seed asset to establish a global digital infrastructure network.
That platform includes data centre operator DigiCo Infrastructure REIT, which in December raised A$2bn from Australia’s largest IPO since 2018. Goldman was one of the underwriters and joint lead managers.
Goldman was also a joint bookrunner on New Zealand infrastructure investment company Infratil’s NZ$1bn (US$565m) placement. Proceeds were earmarked to fund the growth of data centre operator CDC and other projects.
Zip’s A$217m share placement in July highlighted Goldman’s unrivalled ability to time the market, enabling the once-troubled Australian consumer lender to raise funds for an early repayment of expensive debt.
The deal was launched on July 17, days before the company was included in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, capturing demand from index-tracking funds.
Goldman was also a big player in the block business. In April, it helped Dubai-based infrastructure group Sidara raise A$1.44bn from the sale of most of its stake in Australian engineering firm Worley. Three months later, it assisted Sidara in selling the remaining stake in a A$228m block trade.
As sole bookrunner, Goldman also helped Australia’s largest retailer Woolworths Group exit its position in liquor store and pub operator Endeavour Group via a A$383m block trade.
The deal highlighted the bank’s swift execution and exceptional ability to line up investors at a tight discount of 2.1% on an accelerated timeline, with the books closing just 70 minutes after launch.
On the equity-linked front, Goldman worked with New Zealand cloud accounting software company Xero, a repeat client, as it raised US$925m from an upsized convertible bond to fund the repurchase of an existing CB under a concurrent tender offer, which boosted demand.
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