North Ridge Partners And PrimePartners Announce Strategic Alliance

The Australian Financial Review, 22 April 2020, by Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Tim Boyd (edited version below)

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It's been a big few weeks for Webjet chairman Roger Sharp.

Hot on the heels of a company-saving $346 million raising at Webjet, Sharp has stitched up another deal that is even closer to home.

This time, it's a stake in boutique technology investment bank North Ridge Partners, which he founded with some other partners as a tech sector investment house in the early 2000s.

As the venture capital industry grew – and the early-stage tech investment opportunities dried up – the 18-person team moved into advisory and has since worked on more than 100 raisings and M&A transactions in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

North Ridge Partners has entered into a strategic alliance with Singapore-based financial services house PrimePartners Group, which will have PrimePartners inject fresh capital into the business and emerge with a 32 percent stake.

It is understood the deal was signed on Wednesday. For North Ridge Partners, the alliance is about boosting its relationships in Singapore and the wider Southeast Asian region. Its longer-term goal is to be the first boutique with bankers on the ground linking Australia/ Southeast Asia/ US capital markets.

For PrimePartners, it's about boosting the firm's tech sector credentials. PrimePartners CEO Mark Liew will join North Ridge's board as part of the transaction.

The new alliance comes as plenty of tech sector companies considering Series A, B, or C raisings, or preparing for their exits, re-think their plans to adjust to quickly-changing capital market conditions.

Having helped secure Webjet's bailout, Sharp and North Ridge are expected to pop up in a few tourism-related companies' corners, as they go about shoring up their own capital positions. The firm typically targets transactions worth up to $100 million.