Mark Carnegie’s investment ideas: gold, gas, medical devices

Mark Carnegie’s investment ideas: gold, gas, medical devices

Feb 18: Mark Carnegie is one of Australia’s best known investors. A former investment banker, more recently he has focused on private equity and medical technology.

What sort of funds are you managing at the moment? 
M.H. Carnegie & Co has several hundred million invested in a series of funds including real estate, debt, private equity and venture capital.

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Mark Carnegie and Steve Baxter are wrong, we mustn't discount unis in ideas boom

Mark Carnegie and Steve Baxter are wrong, we mustn't discount unis in ideas boom

Sept 19: High-profile VC Steve Baxter joined M H Carnegie & Co founding partner Mark Carnegie in recently arguing that start-ups and corporates should avoid getting involved with universities.

According to Carnegie, collaborating with universities to commercialise research and ideas isn't worth it, because they are "incredibly cumbersome", and according to Baxter, "not easy" to collaborate with.

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Gem of an idea sparkles online

Gem of an idea sparkles online

July 2015: Nick Molnar gave up a career in investment banking to sell jewellery on the web. Now he's offering a way for internet shoppers to buy now and pay later.

As the founder of two online businesses at just 26, Nick Molnar says he is a lucky man.

There have certainly been some strokes of good fortune in his successful development of jewellery retailer iceonline.com.au and the launch of his new payments company Afterpay - but that is not all there is to it.

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Carnegie-backed Minomic improves prostate cancer test

Carnegie-backed Minomic improves prostate cancer test

April 2015: Biotechnology company Minomic has developed a simpler, more accurate blood test for diagnosing prostate cancer, which could reduce the number of men who go on to invasive follow-up tests and suffer plenty of heartache after receiving an initial "false positive" result.

Although they are widely used, the standard prostate-specific antigen [PSA] tests have been problematic diagnostic tools. In six out of 10 cases where the tests identify elevated levels of PSA, it is due to a cause other than cancer or the presence of a cancer that is benign and does not need to be treated. Many of those patients who receive an initial false positive result go on to have multiple follow-up tests and, in some cases, invasive biopsies before the initial diagnosis is debunked.

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Tax white paper misses mark, says venture capitalist

Tax white paper misses mark, says venture capitalist

March 2015: The federal government is less than a week from releasing its much-touted tax white paper but prominent investor Mark Carnegie says there's no point: it should instead return to the Hawke-Keating era of decision-making and boldly implement the changes identified by reviews already.

Increasing the rate of the goods and services tax, plugging loopholes that help the rich to dodge tax and picking up ignored Henry tax review recommendations - chiefly land tax - are among the changes Mr Carnegie said were well-known reform musts.

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Busting some myths about private equity deals

Busting some myths about private equity deals

January 2015: Such funding has its place, says the boss of an outplacement firm

When Jannine Fraser wanted to expand her executive outplacement business Directioneering a few years ago, the last thing she thought of was turning to a private equity investor.

She had heard all the horror stories about working with private equity, including some from executives she had helped who had been laid off as a result of private equity deals.

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Carnegie invests in new medtech company, Simplify Medical

Carnegie invests in new medtech company, Simplify Medical

December 2014: As reported in Business Insider, M.H. Carnegie & Co. is pursuing a “reverse brain drain” strategy through its medical technology investments.

Carnegie is buying innovative medical companies in America and turning them into Australian outfits that benefit from generous tax breaks for research and development. Simplify Medical is the latest of these investments.

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Carnegie’s Den hears pitches from start-up entrepreneurs

Carnegie’s Den hears pitches from start-up entrepreneurs

November 2014: The Deal Magazine profiles four of the Carnegie’s Den finalists - Pointsbuild, Productify, PerformanceCentre and ComWriter.  

Each finalist company is using the internet to develop a highly-specialised niche business to fulfil needs in industries including education, sales and training.  The different ideas highlight how a small operator can create a business using technology to solve a structural problem or offer a better service.

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Mark Carnegie invests in Modern Baking in consumer goods foray

Mark Carnegie invests in Modern Baking in consumer goods foray

July 2014: The Sydney Morning Herald reports that M.H. Carnegie& Co. recently took a stake in baking minnow Modern Baking and is seeking to raise $100 million for a new fund targeting smaller fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) businesses.

Carnegie is looking at six or seven other businesses to add to the fund.  There are a huge number of small FMCG businesses that don’t just need capital but need a partner.

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Carnegie and FIIG launch loans for high-growth companies

Carnegie and FIIG launch loans for high-growth companies

July 2014: Mark Carnegie has teamed up with fixed income dealer FIIG to create Alternate Debt Services (ADS), which aims to link high-growth companies with private debt from investors chasing yield.

ADS structures and arranges high-yielding debt (senior, junior and mezzanine), hybrids and preferred equity, offering investors returns of 10 per cent to 20 per cent.  It fills a “market gap” where borrowers are too risky for bank loans or simple corporate bonds but are not risky enough to produce the returns of more than 20 per cent demanded by Carnegie’s equity funds.

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John Singleton, Gerry Harvey and Mark Carnegie snap up Entertainment Quarter

John Singleton, Gerry Harvey and Mark Carnegie snap up Entertainment Quarter

June 2014: Sydney’s most popular sports and entertainment precinct, the Entertainment Quarter near Fox Studios in inner Sydney, has been bought by the trio for $80 million.

The deal was made under the philosophy that the facility, which includes the shopping outlet, movie theatres, along with the headquarters of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, has the potential for a major facelift and a renewed burst of life.

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My fellow Aussies, ask not what Australia can do for you, ask what you can do for Australia

My fellow Aussies, ask not what Australia can do for you, ask what you can do for Australia

June 2014: Mark Carnegie delivered the inaugural Di Gribble Argument, hosted by the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne.

Being an Australia citizen should require more than a choice at the political smorgasbord once every three years: it should require active participation. Australia needs a form of compulsory national service, but without the military uniform.  I hope this proposal will spark a debate, because debate is sorely needed in Australia

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