Wylie wins Medibank job
MARC MONCRIEF, FINANCIAL SERVICES, REPORTER
14 July 2006
The Age

BOUTIQUE investment bank Carnegie Wylie, steered by Melbourne corporate fixer John Wylie and Sydney's Mark Carnegie, will advise the Federal Government on the billion-dollar sale of Medibank Private.

The bank has taken on some of the most high-profile corporate deals of late. It made $20 million as a broker to Coles Myer's sale of the Myer retail chain - a sale that unexpectedly and profitably included the chain's flagship Bourke Street property.

The bank also helped bring together Toll Holdings and Patrick Corporation, despite emotions on both sides of the deal running at fever pitch.

Carnegie Wylie conducted the initial 2003 study advocating the sale of Medibank Private. Earlier this year, the bank updated its research to reflect the new management of chief executive George Savvides. Carnegie Wylie made $130.8 million profit last year on $2.8 billion revenue.

The float, expected to pour up to $2 billion into government coffers, follows the aborted offering of government-owned Snowy Hydro. That deal was constrained by market appetite, a cultural uprising and the impending sale of the Government's $25 billion Telstra stake.

The Government is expected to wait until after the Telstra deal before detailing the Medibank Private offer to investors.