Good evening,

Turns out Blackmores’ suitor Kirin isn’t the only M&A minded Japanese corporate in town.

Sydney private equity firm CPE Capital has quietly hammered out an exit for its used prestige cars business Dutton Group to Tokyo-listed Sojitz Corporation. CPE began mulling an exit at Dutton back in mid-2021. It had to endure a rollercoaster ride as used car prices shot up and then started to come off, as pandemic-bred supply chain issues cleared out.

The PE firm is selling Dutton at a time when used car prices are tipped to fall another 10 per cent this year, according to Moody’s. The exit leaves CPE’s Fund 8 investors with 2.5-times returns from eight exits, and two remaining holdings in Banksmeadow Recycling and defence business ASDAM.

Now for Liontown Resources. The company obviously said it had not received a new proposal, even a non-binding indicative one. We admit it, we may have been a little early.

On Tuesday morning, well-placed sources were pointing to Perth-based conglomerate Wesfarmers and Chilean lithium giant SQM as the mystery suitor or suitors weighing a bid. It is unclear whether the pair were working together or separately, although their lithium joint venture in Western Australia suggests the former.

Either way, the parties have been “monitoring Liontown for some time,” those sources said. Equally, it remains to be seen if the preliminary interest firms up into a tangible proposal that would require disclosure.

Nevertheless, tomorrow should be an interesting day, with Liontown due to appear at the Macquarie Australia Conference. It would be followed by Albemarle’s quarterly results at 6am on Thursday in Sydney time.

Elsewhere, Healthscope and Real Pet Food Company were putting finishing touches on their refis. And Andrew Forrest poached Credit Suisse’s Kris Liddell, who interestingly advised the billionaire’s rival bidder Iberdrola at CWP Renewables.

Happy reading,

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Street Talk editors