Investment banker Mr John Wylie and investor Mr Mark Carnegie have set up a new private equity fund and corporate advisory firm.
Carnegie, Wylie and Company will start next month with $100 million under management, and will expand the fund on a deal by deal basis.
Mr Wylie is now investment chief of CS First Boston and oversaw the merchant bank's work as sales adviser on the Victorian Government's $30 billion energy privatisation program, was adviser to the Federal Government on the two Telstra sales, and co-adviser to the AMP on its demutualisation and float.
Mr Carnegie is chairman and second largest shareholder in advertising company Singleton Group and has been the principal adviser to US investment house Hellman and Friedman on its Australian and Asian investments - including its role in the Tourang bid for John Fairfax, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald.
The duo will retain close ties with their former employers - with CWC's corporate advisory work being done jointly with CSFB for the first year, while Hellman and Friedman will be the major backer of any larger deals CWC is involved in.
Initially, CWC intends to buy into unlisted investments in Australia and the Asia- Pacific, either with considerable minority stakes or as majority owners.
It already has 15-33 per cent minority stakes in Lonely Planet, Mr Eric Beecher's Text Media group, GE Express and Sydney advertising group Manboom. All were inherited from Mr Carnegie's former private equity group Pacific Edge Corporation.
CWC will concentrate on equity holdings below $75 million, but when they get involved in larger deals, will do so in partnership with investment house Hellman and Friedman.
Mr Carnegie envisaged the fund expanding to $350 million to $500 million within the year, invested over a three and a half year cycle.
The pair agreed that starting a new investment vehicle at or near the peak of a boom market had its difficulties, but said CWC would be a conservative investor.
"There is a decent depth of stuff out there which can't attract finance for reasons to do with fashion," Mr Carnegie said yesterday.
CWC's arrival follows a number of high profile start-up advisory and investment firms, with former ABN Amro high flyers Mr Peter Hunt and Mr Simon Mordant setting up Caliburn Partnership in association with the US-based Lazard Houses, and former BHP chief executive Mr John Prescott founding the Horizon Private Equity.
Mr Rob Stewart will take over as CSFB's managing director of investment banking in January, although Mr Wylie will stay on as chairman of the investment banking group.