Good morning,

Just when we thought dealmaking was done, there’s a flood of activity in the lead-up to Christmas. A potential $80 billion Woodside-Santos merger, a $8 billion Chemist Warehouse reverse listing and $3 billion Perpetual in play.

Mid to small cap companies are also getting in on the action, Boss Energy, Navigator Global and Karoon Energy all pushing through multimillion-dollar capital raises over the past month.

Each deal has its own reason for being but one last shot of M&A before the summer break isn’t all that unusual. When you’ve been working on a deal for some time, getting it out there before Christmas is preferable to prevent it from dragging on into the new year (and ruining your holiday). If you miss the cut-off, the next best time to raise equity is March, after the ASX reporting season in February.

It’s also worth noting that none of the M&A deals requires a large equity or debt component – scrip for scrip on Woodside-Santos, small raise and scrip for scrip on Chemist Warehouse and split up play on Perpetual. Deal makers will be praying this signals pent-up demand for deals in the new year when (fingers crossed) funding is available.

For ECM, a lot of the big deals are in the energy space – uranium, lithium etc – and align with the decarbonisation theme, getting in just in time for the COP28 climate summit. There’s also been a good bit of noise about small caps being cheap after falling out of favour. Seems the money is finally starting to flow in that direction as the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index ticks up.

Strap in for the final week of Street Talk for 2023.

• Game on: would-be merger partners Santos, Woodside prep data rooms.
• Murray Cod Australia throws out a line to hook $400 million fund.
• TPG Capital spruiks for new Asia growth fund.
• Anacacia calls in Allier Capital to shop infrastructure business.
• Five Morgan Stanley advisers jump to Canaccord’s new Brisbane digs.
• Advent Partners sells Frosty Boy to US buyer.

• Morrow Sodali shakes up corporate PR with Citadel-Domestique merger, writes Sam Buckingham-Jones.
• Chemist Warehouse top brass to remain in Sigma merger, writes Carrie LaFrenz.
• TPG’s Joel Thickins was on the warpath, writes Jemima Whyte.

Around $145 million of Murray Cod Australia’s water fund would be used for water rights, an increasingly popular alternative asset class for sophisticated investors.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.