Good evening,

Hats off to National Australia Bank boss Ross McEwan and his crafty bankers, who outfoxed the short sellers on Monday.

NAB brought forward its interim result by 10 days, paving the way for a $3 billion institutional placement - the biggest of the COVID-19 raisings to date.

NAB's brokers Goldman Sachs and Macquarie had little trouble finding buyers at $14.15 a share on Monday. The deal was all but wrapped up by lunchtime.

Few fundies had ever seen NAB stock that cheap. It hasn't traded in the $14s for more than two decades.

Moving on, we're back looking at Virgin Australia and the latest party to express interest in the company. The new tyre-kicker is straight from Canada Inc, and a bidder that has no problem swinging hard if it determines the opportunity is right.

Elsewhere, we look at Qube before its $500 million-odd raising, and the next potential tie-up among the mid-tier stockbrokers.

Happy reading,

Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd

Street Talk Editors