Aware Super, Atlas Merchant hunt Xpansiv stake; JPMorgan called up for Origin Energy deal; BWX shops for $20m debt

Good evening,

Go back to the start of the year and it would’ve been fair to assume that by mid-year we would’ve been writing about carbon trading platform Xpansiv’s shares changing hands.

Instead, its IPO was derailed by choppy markets, skittish investors and tanking tech company valuations. Xpansiv, in need of a few hundred million dollars to settle an acquisition, turned to private capital and a convertible notes deal with Backstone.

Fast forward six months, and we’re finally writing about Xpansiv’s shares trading. There’s still no IPO, but the trading is a secondary purchase by three funds headed by Australia’s Aware Super.

The funds are chasing a 6.7 per cent stake worth $US55 million. They’ve written to Xpansiv’s investors offering to buy stock at $US10.31 a share, which we’re told is a 30 per cent premium to where the company raised from institutional investors 15 months ago.

Xpansiv management is tipping into the deal and is ready to take about 20 per cent of it, by Street Talk’s calculations.

The funds are trying to wrangle the rest out of investors in the coming fortnight.

Elsewhere, we’ve found more bankers in the Origin Energy/Brookfield/EIG Partners deal, and have details of BWX’s proposed funding plan.

And Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s lawyers have the crystal ball out with M&A predictions for 2023.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors