Good evening,

QANTM Intellectual Property, an ASX-listed provider of specialist legal services in five countries, has found itself in the crosshairs of wily bidders amid an earnings turnaround.

Street Talk can reveal QANTM has received a privatisation proposal, in a deal expected to be announced on Tuesday. Sources said the Investec-advised acquirer is an offshore trade player, and had all but agreed terms with the Sonia Petering-chaired board.

Of note, Quadrant Private Equity deal makers and their cross-town rivals at Adamantem Capital submitted proposals to acquire QANTM, but were bested by the afore-mentioned suitor.

Sources said QANTM boss Craig Downer had been taking advice from MA Financial.

QANTM may not be a household name, but it commands respectable market share on its patch. It owns Davies Collison Cave, one of the Asia Pacific’s largest patent and trademark attorney firms. Two of Australia’s top three agents for trademark applications, Sortify.tm and DCC, are also in its stables.

The M&A interest comes at a time when QANTM, capitalised at $161 million on the ASX, has just reported its strongest set of numbers since it listed in 2017.

Though its shares have risen 23 per cent in the past 12 months, the business is still a long way off the $295 million market capitalisation with which it debuted on the bourse. PE firms love to hitch a ride on turnaround, which is likely to be what Quadrant and Adamantem found compelling.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

• Goodman Group is targeting Singapore’s GIC, Dutch pension fund APG and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for NZ funds platform.
• Olive Downs, a PE-owned coking coal mine in Queensland, is testing a continuation fund structure.
• Rich Lister Christian Beck gets broom out at Leap Legal.
• CBA lines up $650 million debt for Costa Group take-private.

• Saint-Gobain has firmed up its $4.3 billion bid for CSR.
• Why the Alcoa, Alumina mega deal is 20 years too late.
• The three billionaires backing Kerry Stokes’ new free newspaper.

Goodman’s investment assets have grown by $27.2 billion in the last three years, and it has delivered total shareholder returns of 81 per cent. Goodman Property Trust, on the other hand, has grown by just $NZ700 million and returned 4.5 per cent.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.