Good evening,

There’s been no better time to be a uranium developer – or investor – than now, thanks to booming demand and a political climate that, should the Coalition win the next election, be friendlier to the controversial metal.

So it is no wonder there are plenty of investment bankers and their kind who are looking for their own opportunities.

Paladin Energy, the ASX-listed uranium miner and developer which has a flagship project in Namibia – Langer Heinrich – and sites in Queensland and Western Australia, is shaping up as one such opportunity. The company has a market capitalisation of some $4 billion – although it only has about $US50 million ($75 million) in cash.

One thought among investors looking closely at Paladin is whether the company, chaired by former Atlas Iron managing director Cliff Lawrenson, may contemplate raising money for an acquisition. While Street Talk is not suggesting a capital raising is in the works or that Paladin is in breach of disclosure requirements, it has an attractive target right in its backyard in the form of Fission Uranium, a Toronto-listed group that has but one project, known as Patterson Lake South in Canada’s Athabasca Basin district.

Fission has a market capital of around $C840 million ($921 million) and has already engaged Sprott as its defence adviser.

Of course, Paladin has several other options. Closer to home, ASX-listed Boss Energy has a market capitalisation of some $1.7 billion and almost $300 million cash. It is also in production, with uranium being mined at its Honeymoon project in South Australia.

Boss has been in the market itself, earlier this year buying a 30 per cent stake in the Alta Mesa uranium project in Texas from enCore Energy.

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

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• Rio Tinto has joined a £300 million ($575 million) investor syndicate to bankroll British energy-storage play Highview Power.
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• Rich Lister Shaun Bonett’s troubled gift card company Prezzee, which he has previously claimed is worth $1 billion, has reported a $79 million loss.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.