A self-proclaimed lazybones, Phillip Green contends that his personal trainer once dumped him because he didn’t turn up for workouts. Green’s attention must have been elsewhere -- say, on the stellar IPO of his Babcock & Brown investment bank on the Australian Stock Exchange last year. Ever since Babcock & Brown moved from San Francisco to Sydney in 2004, Green, 50, has been positively hyperactive: He followed up the A$550 million ($430 million) flotation of his own company with IPOs for a A$1 billion investment fund specializing in big private-equity-style deals; a A$300 million hedge fund, in conjunction with Sydney-based boutique manager Everest Capital; and a A$300 million Japanese property fund, the first of its type in Australia. All trade under the Babcock & Brown brand name. “I like doing deals. I’m a deal junkie,” says Green, a 21-year veteran of the firm and former chief of its Aussie operations. He took over as company head after the firm relocated.
Green says Babcock & Brown chose Sydney knowing that it can pay to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Besides, the Babcock & Brown business model of creating specialist funds to accompany its deal-making activities is suited to the local market, where such funds are becoming more common.
Babcock & Brown’s IPO put the bank in head-to-head competition with Australia’s only other listed investment bank, Macquarie. But Green plays down the rivalry, saying, “Macquarie has their business, and we have ours.”
