Good evening,

Newcrest Mining kicked off Monday by copping up to Street Talk’s revelation of M&A interest in the gold miner.

Its admission that it has a scrip bid, worth $24.5 billion, from gold juggernaut Newmont Corporation sparks two questions –would investors be happy with the 22 per cent premium, and would a competing suitor throw its hat in the ring.

In tonight’s column, we run a temperature check on both.

On price, the market was split between those who reckoned Newmont couldn’t raise its bid by more than 5 per cent from here (having already gone from 0.363 to 0.38 in scrip ratio), and an opposite camp that reckoned it would need to go up to prise open the books.

Of course, it all depends on how both sides’ shares trade but on Monday, only about 2 per cent of the target’s register changed hands.

There are lots of moving parts. But just a day ago, who would’ve thought there would be a bigger deal than Origin’s $18.4 billion (shrinking) bid for investors to stress over?

Elsewhere, ANZ bank had two debt deals in a day. It raised $1 billion for a Tier 2 deal, and quickly followed up with a hybrid issue.

It’s a taste of both worlds from ANZ: Tier 2 offers from banks are supposed to be in full bloom this year as they wean themselves off the RBA’s cheap pandemic funding, while — on the flipside — hybrids are supposed to be a rare sight with most big refinancing deals done in 2022 and an empty calendar ahead.

Lastly, Goldman Sachs’ special situations team had two senior bankers exit, and KKR was passing around the hat for a new PE fund.

Happy reading,

Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk Editors