Daily Brief Financials: Perpetual Ltd, Greentown China, Pioneer Credit, Aon , SK Finance Limited and more

• Back in December last year, Aussie-listed equities manager Perpetual Ltd (PPT AU) rejected Washington H. Soul Pattinson (SOL AU)‘s $3bn all-scrip non-binding indicative proposal. 
• Yet Soul Patt’s proposal was in sync with Perpetual’s previously flagged intentions to explore a potential separation of its corporate trust and wealth management businesses, from its asset management business.
• Perpetual has now entered a Scheme, to carve out the corporate trust and wealth management businesses to KKR for A$2.175bn. A lack of clarity on net proceeds saw shares rollover.

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• Adaro Energy
• Greentown China
• Vedanta Resources

• Pioneer Credit Limited (ASX:PNC) is one of the leading acquirers and managers of impaired credit in Australia and has gained its status by maintaining positive customer engagement, an unblemished compliance record with ASIC, and strong relationships with Australia’s largest bank and non-bank lenders.
• PNC purchases debt from numerous Australian vendor partners (18 different vendors in the past 12 months) with long-term partnership purchasing arrangements in place with Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA).
• Pioneer’s success in purchasing large debt portfolios at attractive IRRs since October highlights the strong position the company occupies in the marketplace, now enhanced by the recent purchases on attractive IRRs.

• Aon Plc has delivered a strong start to the year, reporting 5% overall organic revenue growth, a 100 basis point margin expansion, and 9% EPS growth.
• He highlighted that the company managed to deliver solid results during the quarter despite commercial risk pressures and a slow rebound in M&A and IPO activity.
• Regardless, Aon Plc was able to close its acquisition of NFP, which is said to strengthen its position in the fast-growing $31 billion North American middle market.

• SK Finance Limited (0893736D IN) is looking to raise US$260m in its upcoming India IPO. The bookrunners on the deal are Kotak, Jefferies, Motilal Oswal, and Nomura.
• SK Finance is a non-deposit non-banking finance company middle layer (NBFC ML) operating in two main verticals, vehicle financing and financing for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
• As per the CRISIL report in the DRHP, the firm was the fastest growing player in the vehicle financing and MSME financing segments based on AUM growth over FY21-23.