Good evening,

A rotten year for ASX-listed can and bottle maker Orora has activists making moves behind the scenes.

Street Talk understands home-grown investment bank Barrenjoey tried to pull together a syndicate of investors in a single stock fund to nab a 10 per cent stake in the Amcor spin-off and agitate for change.

In a 16-page deck, which went out to family office and high-net-worth types in April, Barrenjoey told interested parties it was seeking a $289 million stake in the company. This would be funded by a $182 million equity raise and $87 million debt. The investment bank would also put up $20 million in equity – or 10 per cent of the stake – exposing itself to potential upside or downside.

Interested parties were told the fund would be highly active, calling for board and management change, seeking to divest its major 2023 acquisition, French glass bottle maker Saverglass (and distribute capital to shareholders) and zeroing in on operational efficiency in North America. This, they said, was in the name of returning Orora’s price-to-equity ratio to “historical levels” and “ensuring swift earnings recovery”.

If achieved, Barrenjoey reckons its fund could deliver an internal rate of return of around 24 per cent, or put bluntly, “2.3-times money in four years”.

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

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In one slide, Barrenjoey detailed how it plans to reap $1.5 billion (€900 million) from the sale of Saverglass, noting the underbidders One Rock Capital Partners and Lone Star Funds bid between €1.05 billion and €1.15 billion.

Falls in commodity prices over the weekend sent the Australian sharemarket lower in its opening session of the week.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.