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.
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.
Read MoreJuly 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.
Read MoreApril 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.
Read MoreMarch 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.
Read MoreJanuary 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.
Read MoreDecember 2014: Bluewire Media’s Toby Jenkins talks to Mark Carnegie about his marketing philosophy (inspired by Australia’s best known advertising man), the three things he looks for in an investment, and how to get a PhD in investment banking.
Read MoreDecember 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.
Read MoreNovember 2014: Mark Carnegie talks to Janine Perrett, on Sky News’ The Perrett Report, about the Australian media landscape, including cuts to the ABC, government media law changes and the digital revolution, and his broad optimism for the Australian economy.
Read MoreNovember 2014: Two Sydney-based entrepreneurs, Dean Steingold and Doron Ostrin, have won the latest Carnegie’s Den pitchfest. Their company, Productify, helps to upload pictures and data to online shopping sites.
Read MoreNovember 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.
Read MoreOctober 2014: Michael Traill and Mark Carnegie talk at the Social Ventures Australia debate about the need for a more equal society.
“We’ve built a prodigiously successful economy for 85-90%, but we’ve left 10-15% behind,” said Mark Carnegie. “We need a national debate about the excluded class in Australia.
Read MoreOctober 2014: Mark Carnegie talks to Peter Wilmoth of The Weekly Review about being a ‘capitalist with a conscience’, the impact of divorce on families, and the need for an engaged community.
Read MoreJuly 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.
Read MoreJuly 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.
Read MoreJune 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.
Read MoreJune 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
Read MoreMarch 2014: The Australian’s Andrew White talks with Mark Carnegie about successful venture capital models in Australia and the need for an effective investment and innovation ecosystem.
Read MoreMay 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.
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