Good evening,

Well, the potential Brambles M&A situation unravelled quickly! Only one day after we reported Brambles was in talks with PE giant CVC Capital Partners, and Brambles confirmed it, the suitor got cold feet and walked away, citing market volatility.

These things happen in M&A. Whether it was market volatility or the reaction of some of CVC’s investors, or both, depends who you asked on Tuesday. In reality, it was probably a mixture of everything. For Brambles, the writing was probably on the wall when it had gone through a few months of talks with CVC and still there was no bid.

So it’s over to KKR & Co to show us how to stitch up a $20 billion plus buyout. We checked in on the Ramsay Health Care deal on Tuesday, and found plenty of bankers scurrying around trying to secure a sliver.

The big question is whether KKR can firm up its $88-a-share indicative bid. The candles burning inside offices in Sydney suggest it’s working hard to make sure it does.

Elsewhere, we have a new renewable energy deal out of Azure Capital, and have another look at Humm as the battle of its consumer finance sale looks like heating up.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors