Good evening,

We’ve got a rare sighting tonight: Global giant BlackRock has entered the race for a $1 billion-odd stake in Pacific Equity Partners’ smart meters company Intellihub.

It’s not often we see BlackRock line up as a bidder for Australian assets, but its interest in Intellihub makes sense because it already has a stake in UK energy metre company Calisen. It owns Calisen alongside Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co.

Whether BlackRock goes it alone, or its bankers Macquarie Capital foresee a tie-up with Calisen, is up in the air.

Elsewhere, we look at why now is the time the global biotech giants will be doing their due diligence on ASX-listed immunotherapy play Immutep; Macquarie Capital takes Axicom’s auction up a notch; and deal fatigue has hit home with more floats being pulled, but Ventia’s bankers are working hard to keep it alive.

Happy reading,

Anthony Macdonald, Yolanda Redrup and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors