Good evening,

Corporate Travel boss and major shareholder Jamie Pherous wasn't joking when he told our colleague Liam Walsh he was getting ready to lash out on an acquisition only a fortnight ago.

“It’s created acquisition opportunities like never before,” Pherous said, referring to COVID-19 and its impact on the travel sector. “No one else has the ability to buy anything or [have banking] covenants that permit buying.”

Corporate Travel shares are expected to go into a trading halt on Monday, while Pherous and his team finalise the deal. The company and its brokers, Morgans and Morgan Stanley, were lining up early backers over the weekend.

It's not known what Corporate Travel is buying - but if the mooted $400 million raising ticket size is anything to go by, it's likely chunky.

Elsewhere, Andrew Forrest is making a late play for RM Williams and seeking to blow up buyout firm TPG Capital's run at the bootmaker.

And there's a new neobank pitching fund managers and seeking to have a Series B raising wrapped up this week.

Happy reading
Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Street Talk Editors