The $25 billion buyout wave: Why private equity is targeting unloved ASX stocks and what it means for the future of the market

In the past four months, a torrent of takeover bids worth a combined $25 billion targeted more than a dozen Australian publicly listed companies. Over half of the bids have been made by cash-rich private equity groups or sovereign wealth funds that are rolling in cash and are hunting unloved companies such as Cleanaway, Australia’s largest rubbish collection business, which is the subject of an opportunistic $9.4 billion bid.

This year was supposed to be one where more private companies sought listings on the ASX. Instead, the reverse is happening: more public companies are going private, continuing the hollowing out of Australia’s public equity market. In the past five years, the number of listed companies on the ASX has fallen by 8 per cent to 2045.

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