Property Exchange Australia hopes to list as a company worth about $550 million, according to sources, as Citic CLSA emerges as the company’s adviser.
The deal will be spearheaded by Mark Dorney, a former Macquarie banker who heads up the Citic CLSA’s Australian and New Zealand corporate finance and capital markets divisions, as first revealed by DataRoom online yesterday.
Citic CLSA beat a raft of firms in the contest to secure an advisory role, including Rothschild, Lazard, Reunion Capital Partners, Luminis, Highbury Partnership, Gresham and Greenhill.
Mr Dorney recently helped the Macquarie-backed PEXA secure $145m in fresh equity to fund its uptake cycle and is expected to list next year, with some estimating that its market value sits at more than $500m.
PEXA chief executive Marcus Price has previously told The Australian that the company had grown tenfold for the 12 months to the end of June.
The PEXA System is a secure platform that allows Australia’s property lawyers and conveyancers, land registries and financial institutions to transact online.
PEXA began as a Council of Australian Governments initiative in 2010 and still counts the states of NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia as major shareholders.
Other shareholders include the top four banks, Macquarie and Link Market Services.