Financial services are a favored sector for sponsors and lenders, as detailed in our previous story, and Insignia Financial’s dual-currency loan offering presents a rare opportunity for US-based lenders to finance an asset and wealth manager in the Land Down Under.

Insignia’s auction to LBO timeline reflects this, with media reports of a “three-way” bidding war between Brookfield, Bain Capital and CC Capital for the company earlier in February. CC Capital, together with OneIM, announced the buyout of Insignia in July for an implied EV of A$3.9bn ($2.51bn).

Lenders should see an increasing number of deals from the region as sponsors and their banks look to originate outside of crowded US and European markets, sources said.

“We’re seeing a pickup in sponsor transactions and financings out of Australia and Asia,” said a US-based banker. “Some of it is driven by uncertainty in the US and Europe, so you can expect to see more of these transactions from Asia with a diverse financing source of currencies.”