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.

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.

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.

May 2013: Backed by big-name private investors and the industry fund, Sunsuper, the Australian Pub Fund acquired $65 million of new capital to continue its strategy of buying under-performing or financially distressed pubs in prime locations, and renovating them to improve their food and entertainment.