Good morning,

Nothing like a knees-up to celebrate a bit of deal making. And that’s exactly where we spotted ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott on Saturday, on the rooftop of Catalano HQ.

He was there to mark View Media Group, the property vehicle operated by Alex Waislitz and Antony Catalano, which closed a deal to take its interest in Real Estate View to 90 per cent. The transaction was first flagged by Street Talk in August.

The deal means View Media can now move to compulsorily acquire the online property portal that looks an awful lot like Catalano’s former business Domain and rival REA Group.

Catalano’s regional publishing business, Australian Community Media, and Seven West’s television and newspapers are hoping to turn View into a major player to compete with REA and Domain.

Elliott was presumably there because ANZ has a $50 million stake in View Media and was understood to have looked to acquire a stake in Domain five years ago.

ANZ’s persistent interest shows just how long the bank has wanted to get into online real estate in a bid to get more mortgages flowing into its $700 billion-odd loan book.

Australia’s big four banks are all scrambling for ways to gain a larger slice of the country’s competitive mortgage market, turning to M&A and partnerships with the likes of View Media to capture new customers.

It seems the Catalano-Elliott connection is in fine form.

Happy reading,

• Data centre giant AirTrunk mulls $10 billion-plus initial public offering; shareholders send request for proposals.
• Star Entertainment locks in debt package; preps $750 million equity raising.
• Quadrant Private Equity’s Pacific Hunter, which operates restaurant chain Fratelli Fresh, has been handed a $228 million debt lifeline.
• Airbnb letting manager MadeComfy is back on the fundraising trail.

• TPG Capital’s $1.8 billion buyout offer for InvoCare has been deemed fair and reasonable by an independent expert, writes Simon Evans.
• The $18.7 billion bid for Origin depends on this key question, writes Angela Macdonald-Smith.
• KKR-backed BrightSpring has confidentially refiled for a listing with the goal of raising $1 billion, Bloombergreports.
• Some of the world’s largest private equity firms are moving away from mega buyouts to private credit and infrastructure as interest rates rise, theFinancial Times reports.

Star Entertainment has plummeted 80 per cent over the past year to an all-time low of 75¢. Its latest accounts show the year to June 30 was the worst in Star’s history.

The Australian sharemarket posted its biggest weekly loss in 13 months on Friday.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.