Good evening,

It’s bids flying left, right and centre on the ASX right now!

United Malt opened the day with a confirmation of Street Talk’s Sunday evening scoop that Malteries Soufflet had firmed up its $5 a share bid from March.

Bill Beament’s Develop Global kept the day’s dealmaking going, lobbing a scrip bid worth 56c a share (at Friday’s close) for lithium junior Essential Metals. And gold miner Ramelius gazumped rival bidder Westgold at Musgrave Minerals.

Tonight in Street Talk, we reveal two more bids headed towards the ASX boards.

Listed shipbuilder and red-hot M&A target Austal is expected to receive an indicative bid from New York’s JF Lehman & Company as early as this week. The suitor is working with Morgan Stanley, and has joined a queue that already includes Cerberus, Arlington and Joe Hockey’s Bondi Partners.

Over at Costa Group, PE investor Paine Schwartz Partners looks like it’s finally ready to lob a bid, eight months after its October raid when it picked up 14 per cent of the company.

Debt capital markets were also pumping on the first working day of the new financial year, with Keppel’s chemicals business Ixom and QIC’s Vector Metering both stitching up billion-dollar deals.

Lastly, we ran an inventory check on the IPO pipeline, as Redox began trading. It ended the day down 5 per cent, so ECM bankers would still have their fingers crossed tight for 2023 floats.

Happy reading,
Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Street Talk editors