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From rubbish to rail: Global firms feast on undervalued ASX companies. Corporate leaders lament a culture of "short-termism" on the ASX, as cashed-up global asset managers quietly scoop up undervalued industrial giants. Aug 23, 2026 - 4.00pm In the past four months, a torrent of takeover bids worth a combined $25 billion targeted more than a dozen Australian publicly listed companies. Over half of the bids have been made by cash-rich private equity groups or sovereign wealth funds that are rolling in cash and are hunting unloved companies such as Cleanaway, Australia's largest rubbish collection business, which is the subject of an opportunistic $9.4 billion bid. This year was supposed to be one where more private companies sought listings on the ASX. Instead, the reverse is happening: more public companies are going private, continuing the hollowing out of Australia's public equity market. In the past five years, the number of listed companies on the ASX has fallen by 8 per cent to 2045. This trend is adding to the woes already facing the stock exchange operator, the Australian Securities Exchange, which has been under scrutiny for its technology and management failures. At least one businessman, Andrew Catsoulis, a founder of National Storage, blames the short-term focus of institutional investors, who are worried about their stock market returns for clients and increasingly lack the patience that some companies need to deliver on a five- to 10-year plan. Catsoulis has seen both sides of the coin. He founded National Storage with his wife, Karen, in 1995 and grew it into a business with 300 sites offering lockable storage boxes. It listed on the ASX in 2013 with a market value of $200 million. It was bought out earlier this year by Canadian asset manager Brookfield and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC for $4 billion. "Certainly, that increasing lens of short-termism is not helping," said Catsoulis, noting that the market failed to take a long-term view of a company and how to expand its business. "I do think it's a shame, it's really the last bastion of entrepreneurship. I don't like the fact that public markets are becoming less relevant." On the other hand, he said the glare of public markets is intense and that compliance and increasingly onerous corporate governance requirements have made them less appealing. "It's a very, very unforgiving environment where you are also dealing with increasing regulation, corporate governance and shareholder activism. What's happened is that the historical view of the opportunity with an IPO has changed." Investors hoping that some companies bought by private equity players five or six years ago might return to the ASX are also out of luck. Instead, many of those companies are being traded between private equity groups and sovereign wealth funds. Aged care homes operator Estia Health, which was owned by Bain Capital for almost three years, was among the pipeline of companies mooted for a possible public listing. It was sold instead for $2.5 billion to global asset manager Stonepeak. Pet care and vet clinic group Greencross, which has been owned by private equity firm TPG Capital since a buyout in 2019, had been pursuing a possible public listing, but that was put on hold after it entered into talks to be sold to supermarket giant Coles. Those talks were ultimately scuppered when talk of the deal leaked in July prompting an investor backlash that led to Coles abandoning the deal. This year, the takeover offers have come thick and fast. US private equity fund TPG Global made a $658 million bid for Equity Trustees, the troubled ASX-listed wealth management firm that is being sued over its connection to the Shield and First Guardian collapse. Plumbing supplies group Reliance Worldwide received a $4.1 billion bid from global asset manager Brookfield. A consortium, including private equity group KKR, is well advanced on a $7.7 billion bid for general insurer network Steadfast Group, while billboards company oOh!media has agreed to a $1 billion buyout by infrastructure investor I Squared Capital. One of Australia's biggest car leasing groups, FleetPartners, is the subject of a bidding war among three suitors, while logistics giant Qube disappeared from the ASX earlier this month after an $11.7 billion takeover by a Macquarie Asset Management-led consortium. Yarra Capital's head of Australian equities Dion Hershan said private equity groups are having a field day with a large pot of patient capital. "Benchmark awareness among investors and short-termism are setting up a great private equity vintage," Hershan said. "Private equity firms are rightly exploiting the glaring inefficiencies among many companies that have short-term issues to contend with; it's a fertile environment," he said. Private equity groups have around $42 billion of "dry powder" ready to deploy, according to the Australian Investment Council. Goldman Sachs Australian equity strategist Matthew Ross, said there is a large pool of funds looking for a home. "Estimates of global buyout capital have roughly tripled over the past decade, so financial sponsors have a lot more capital to deploy," Ross said. The private equity funds are also increasingly joining forces with family offices and sovereign wealth funds. "Super funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices have all grown in scale and sophistication and are becoming more active, and they often invest alongside a buyout fund to manage the process," Ross said. Private equity groups are also spared the backlash that ASX-listed companies can experience when they make a bid. "We've seen some situations where ASX firms have walked away from potential transactions after their own share prices have fallen in response to reported deals," Ross said. "The Coles situation, where it got cold feet on a potential Greencross pet group buyout, was a classic example." Are the chief executives of large listed companies becoming more nervous that they may also be picked off or targeted by private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, or global pension groups? Graham Chipchase, the chief executive of $25 billion logistics giant Brambles, said the best defence is to keep delivering on forecasts. "All you can do is deliver what you say you are going to deliver. You've just got to stick to your knitting," he said. MST Marquee senior research analyst Hasan Tevfik said many industrial companies with limited growth prospects are difficult to value for investors. "There is a level of entrenched mispricing in the Aussie equity market. Most investors focus heavily on profits and cash flow momentum and are prepared to value companies generating both quite highly. However, many investors struggle to value companies that are not growing," he said. Tevfik points to Cleanaway's network of assets across Australia that "would be extraordinarily difficult for a competitor to replicate". Tevfik also said the lack of IPO prospects emerging from private equity ownership has, in part, been caused by scepticism from investors who are once-bitten, twice shy. "Many previous private-equity IPOs have been dismal performers after listing, leaving active managers hesitant to back the next deal," he said, pointing to examples such as Myer and Dick Smith Holdings. "A common complaint from institutional investors is that these businesses offer very little upside once they reach the public market. Costs have already been cut, balance sheets have often been leveraged, and the obvious growth opportunities, if there were any, have already been exploited." Secondary private equity transactions, in which a private equity fund buys from a peer rather than pursuing an IPO, have become more common. Australia's second-largest pub group, Australian Venue Company, has had a succession of private equity owners over the past three years. It is now controlled by private equity groups PAG and CVC, which each hold 45 per cent, with management owning the remainder. CVC bought its holding last year from PAG, which valued the pub group at $2.1 billion. PAG originally bought into Australian Venue Company from another private equity operator, KKR, in 2023. Goldman Sachs' Ross said secondary private equity transactions have increased significantly, along with the rise of "continuation" funds - investment vehicles that allow investors to cash out - which, in turn, enable private equity firms to delay exits beyond the typical five to seven years. Morningstar senior equity market strategist Lochlan Halloway expects more bids to arrive for public companies from hungry private money. "The ASX overall is richly priced, but that hides a lot of dispersion. Many mid-and-small caps have been smashed in the flight to quality, and that's where PE firms seem to be looking," he said. If that valuation wedge persists, Halloway said the takeovers will continue. However, James Posnett, the general manager of listings for the ASX, cautions against "definitively attributing the [takeover] activity to a single driving factor". "In general we view takeovers, including transactions led by private capital, as a normal feature of healthy and competitive capital markets," he said, adding that public and private markets play complementary roles across the capital life cycle. "Private capital can be an important source of ownership and funding," said Posnett. "While public markets offer distinctive advantages: transparent price discovery, liquidity, ongoing access to follow-on capital, strong governance and disclosure standards, and participation by a broad base of retail and institutional investors." If there are fewer public companies, however, it undermines the ASX, which has historically been the place for those wanting to invest in the country's most important companies.

The 20 things Appliance Retailer learned from the JB Hi-Fi FY26 results. Here are 20 things Appliance Retailer learned from the FY26 results delivered yesterday by Group CEO, Nick Wells. * Record turnover: Group sales exceeded $11 billion for the first time - an increase of 4.6 per cent on the previous year that Wells described as a solid result "in an uncertain retail environment". EBIT, NPAT, EPS and the dividend paid were all higher than this time last year. * Value-driven customers: The electrical retailing industry is currently facing "a retail environment where customers are seeking value" and "a unique period for the technology categories with significant supplier price rises and availability challenges". * Price rises in tech: "Price rises and availability are impacting quite broadly and it does vary on the supplier, but we have seen material price rises and post those price rises we have seen changes to the frequency and depth of the promotional activity and that is also having an impact." * Jelly July: In Australia the three businesses had a tough July 2026 (compared to a year earlier). JB Hi-Fi was down 0.5% (comparable down 1.4%), The Good Guys was down 1.7% and e&s was down 2.7% (comparable down 4.0%). * Soft July and impact from promotional periods: "[July] is one month, it is a small month and it is not a promotional period," Wells said. "What we can see is the promotional periods are becoming increasingly important when customers are looking for value and so a period like end of financial year in June and Black Friday have become important and maybe it sucks a little bit out of the non-promotional periods like July." * Terry Smart returns: A company announcement issued to the ASX has confirmed former CEO Terry Smart will join the board on 5 October replacing another former CEO Richard Uechtritz who will retire from the board on 29 October after 15 years on the board and 10 years as CEO. * Responsible sustainability: After six consecutive years creating an annual Sustainability Report, JB Hi-Fi has now created its first Responsible Business Report. The company says its climate related disclosures are now contained in a Sustainability Report within their Annual Report. * Electronic shelf labels: JB Hi-Fi will introduce electronic shelf labels in 100 stores to allow staff to invest in customer facing roles * New stores: There will be four new JB Hi-Fi stores in FY27 and one store relocation as the brand continues to focus on regional locations. There will be one new store for The Good Guys store in FY27 (opening this week in Aura in Queensland) as well as five relocations and two extensions to right-size previously undersized stores and grow available selling space. The next e&s store will be the new-build Mornington store in Victoria currently under construction. New store locations for e&s are currently being identified. * Pro-Forma sales: Sales revenue at e&s has been impacted by the migration of wholesale sales to agency sales (such as Fisher & Paykel) that for external reporting purposes are recognised as a commission only. Total sales on a gross basis were up on the prior year. * Gross Margin: The company will continue to aim for gross margin around 22 per cent. * Online Sales: JB Hi-Fi now makes $1.28 billion from online sales or 17.2 per cent of total sales. Online sales in New Zealand are identical - representing 17.3 per cent of overall sales, after growing by 37.6 per cent over the last 12 months. The Good Guys generated $481 million in online sales or 16.4 per cent of total sales. * Good Guys, Good Result: Sales increased by 2.7 per cent to $2.94 billion taking share in the category despite a challenging market. Innovation in portable appliances delivered growth. Coffee and robotic vacs continue to perform. Cooking growth was driven by built-in cooking and rangehoods. Refrigeration growth was driven by consumers shifting into larger capacity models and audio also performed well driven by headphones. * JB Hi-Fi best sellers: Total sales within JB Hi-Fi grew by 4.4 per cent to $7.42 billion with growth in computers from AI-enabled PCs and gaming PCs. Mobile phone growth both in units and in ASPs. Within fitness, wearables continue to perform strongly as well as the expanded health and well-being categories. In small appliances, the momentum remains strong with lots of innovation led by coffee, robotic vacuums and kitchen appliances. * Renovating e&s: The last 12 months have been spent renovating the renovation specialists in terms of investing in people, website development and the market should expect green shoots over the year(s) ahead. Sales for the last 12 months were $273 million down 0.2 per cent with the new Hobart store included and down 3.2 per cent based on comparable store turnover a year earlier. EBIT was minus $400,000. Despite this result, could e&s potentially become a $1 billion business? * Retail Media: The company plans to expand its retail media network from 140 screens to 250 screens over the next 12 months to leverage significant online and in-store traffic to create unique multi-channel advertising experience for its partners. * AI: in addition to growing online, phone and chat sales channels to service customers, Wells confirmed investment in technology such as AI and Agentic Commerce using natural-language product search and agent-based shopping experiences. * NZ: Record sales in New Zealand with comparable sales up 15.3 per cent and 26 per cent once new stores are included "as the business continues to resonate with customers and expands its reach". The key growth areas were mobile phones, computers, audio, small appliances and games hardware. * A lot of staff: JB Hi-Fi employs 17,000 people across all businesses. By comparison Harvey Norman employs around 6,500 people locally and this grows to 12,000 people once the international businesses are included. * New e&s general manager: Speaking of staff, Alex Lass has been quietly appointed as GM retail operations at e&s - he was previously JB Hi-Fi general manager of training and development.