Forrest’s Wyloo Attracts IPO Pitches : Australia Briefing

Wyloo Metals, the private nickel miner owned by billionaire and Fortescue Chairman Andrew Forrest, says it’s been inundated with pitches to take the company public. “We’re not thinking about an IPO at the moment,” Wyloo CEO Luca Giacovazzi said at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie. Meanwhile, gold mining firms Northern Star and Evolution, soon to be Australia’s two biggest, said they’re not interested in buying operations predicted to be put up for sale by Newmont after its $19 billion acquisition of Newcrest.

Australia’s biggest pension fund plans to invest billions of pounds in the UK and Europe and is readying for a hiring spree in London. The $198 billion AustralianSuper fund, which has invested in Heathrow Airport and the redevelopment of King’s Cross, plans to manage around 25% of its assets out of London by 2030, CEO Paul Schroder says. To support the expansion, the asset manager will increase headcount in London to about 180 in the next three years from about 83 today. Staff numbers are expected to swell to about 300 by 2030.