Good evening,

Qatar Airways is close to finalising a deal to acquire a minority stake in Virgin Australia, almost 1½ years after its private equity owner Bain Capital delayed a billion-dollar float of the carrier and pivoted to courting strategic buyers.

Street Talk understands Qatar is within days of signing the deal, although it would be conditional on receiving approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board. The talks were first revealed by The Australian Financial Review in June.

And while Labor has had some troubles with Qatar in the past – knocking back the state-owned airline’s requests for more flights into the country – it would presumably have some second thoughts about kiboshing this deal unless FIRB had solid ground to recommend against it.

Remember, Bonza and Regional Express have both collapsed in recent months, leaving few competitors for local giant Qantas. Knocking back Qatar saw the government criticised for protecting Qantas’ profits. And an election is near.

Should the two camps sign a deal as expected, it could dramatically shake up Australia’s aviation landscape – and possibly threaten Qantas’ stranglehold on domestic routes.

As for Bain Capital, which bought Virgin out of administration in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, the Qatar deal is expected to ring in a payday while still leaving its dealmakers with majority ownership of the carrier.

The US private capital bigwig, led locally by Michael Murphy, had Goldman Sachs, Barrenjoey and UBS power through a non-deal roadshow early last year but did not pull the trigger on the mooted float. The management trio – chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka, chief financial officer Race Strauss and chief development officer David Marr – who presented at the IPO meetings, have exited or are exiting the business.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

• The year’s biggest M&A deal, data centre business AirTrunk’s $20 billion-plus sale, is set to be decided within days after sellers sought last-minute clarifications from the two bidder consortiums over the weekend.
• Global Infrastructure Partners has walked out at Queensland Airports Limited auction, as its dealmakers come within inches of securing exclusivity at Jemena and wait on AirTrunk’s auction results.
• Accel-KKR’s bid for listed human resources software player LiveHire is facing opposition from Harvest Lane Management, which is courting rival bidders for its 18.3 per cent stake.

• The NSW casino regulator has released its report on Star Entertainment, whose arrival had forced the company to shore up its funding.
• Flave, a vegan restaurant chain started by a former Zambrero CEO has collapsed.
• On Friday, Woolworths Group sold its remaining shares in Endeavour Group, owner of Dan Murphy’s and BWS bottle shops. The block trade was handled by Goldman Sachs.

AirTrunk’s $20 billion-plus sale is expected to establish a valuation benchmark for other data centre businesses like NextDC, Global Data Centre Group and Infratil and Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation’s CDC.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.