Allegro Funds set to appoint adviser for Team Global Express

afr.com:

It seems Christine Holgate’s turnaround of Team Global Express – after just 2½ years of life under private equity owner Allegro Funds – has caught the attention of cashed-up overseas buyers.

Street Talk can reveal a request for proposal was sent to investment banks earlier this month, asking them to pitch for a broad-ranging advisory role. The mandate would include defence strategies and canvassing preliminary inbound interest, sources said.

Under Christine Holgate’s customer-centric leadership, Team Global Express’ top-line revenue growth rose 17 per cent to $2.815 billion for the 2023 financial year.  James Brickwood

It is understood a change of control event is at least two years away, and the appointment was not an indication that a sale was imminent. Sources said Goldman Sachs and UBS were in the box seat to secure the role, given it’s expected to be an international buyer set for the business.

Team Global Express runs an Australia-wide intermodal logistics network, delivering goods ranging from vaccinations and medical supplies, online shopping orders and mining resources. It has a big fleet of trucks, planes and the like which were pitched with a $1 billion-plus replacement value during the sale process.

Allegro paid less than $10 million to buy it off Japan Post two years ago, a far cry from the $6.5 billion that Japan Post paid for it. Allegro was advised by Macquarie Capital during that transaction. As a part of that deal, Allegro vouched to put in $500 million of new capital including debt.

Almost $5 billion was written off after two years of Japan Post ownership. At the time it was offloaded to the Australian private equity investor in 2021, the company had revenues of $3.2 billion revenue.

Under Holgate’s