Ord Minnett prepares Salter Brothers LIC for float
Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Apr 28, 2021 – 9.32pm
Local investment house Salter Brothers is bringing back the LIC.
Salter Brothers co-founder and chief executive Robert Salter.
Street Talk understands the fund manager has drafted in stockbroker Ord Minnett to help it float a $100 million-odd listed investment company that will tip money into early-stage/emerging businesses.
Ords is trying to raise $20 million for Salter Brothers Emerging Companies Ltd at $1 a share and would start taking bids from mid-May, according to terms sent to potential investors.
The vehicle would invest in between 25 and 35 listed and unlisted companies, with sub-$500 million market capitalisations, and planned to hold onto the investments for at least five years.
Investors were told the LIC would have holdings worth about $100 million upon listing, and the investment strategy would be managed by Salter Brothers Funds Management.
Salter Brothers is run by hotel tycoons Paul and Robert Salter. It has about $2 billion in assets under management and is best known in the market for its property, credit and private equity funds.
The raising will be a good test of investor appetite for new LICs, which have fallen out of fashion in the past couple of years – and been the cause of numerous activist shareholder campaigns.
The last two LICs to hit the local bourse – both on November 1, 2019 – were VGI’s VGI Partners Asian Investments Limited and the KKR Credit Income Fund, according to the ASX’s LIC database.
The Salter Brothers LIC is expected to start trading on the ASX in early June.