This wasn't on Macquarie's Bingo card
Macquarie Asset Management seeks an exit from the mafia's favourite business
One of Harry Houdini's most daring acts involved being handcuffed and clamped in leg irons, nailed inside a packing crate filled with 200 pounds of lead, and being dropped into New York's East River. He always survived, but then again Houdini always did have four or five back-up escape plans.
The mini-millionaires who toil beneath Macquarie Asset Management boss Ben Way are praying that some Houdini-like tricks will help them deal with Australia's second-most catastrophic private equity deal (after Healthscope), Bingo Industries. And just in case the brains trust at Macquarie can't find a way out of this mess, the Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column reported last month that the bank had hired the financial wizards at Moelis to find a buyer.
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) paid $2.6 billion for Bingo in a takeover in mid-2021. Post-takeover, one of MIRA's wholesale infrastructure funds, the Macquarie Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Fund 3 (MAIF3), ended up owning the bulk of the Bingo stake. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, was a co-investor.
The multiple Macquarie and its partners paid – an eye-watering 19.5 times EBITDA – had old-time garbos reaching for the smelling salts. Nobody in their right mind had ever paid that kind of multiple for a waste collection and management business in this part of the world since, well, ever.
