Solar farms; Sara Lee bake sale; Woodside stalks Chevron's NWS stake

Good evening,
After M&A Monday – where PEP and Carlyle made a $3.5 billion bid for Link and a financial investor outbid a strategic one at OptiComm – Street Talk was knocked over by a flood of sale flyers today.

Vendors and bankers are clearly keen to get their auctions up and running ahead of the Christmas break, and are sick of waiting around.

First up was Spanish group FRV's giant Australian solar farms portfolio, and then private equity target Sara Lee, out of McCain Foods.

And Street Talk can reveal BlackRock is in on the selling action, putting its Australian renewable investments on the block via Azure Capital and Natixis.

We also have proof that $18 billion behemoth Woodside Petroleum is firming up its intentions towards Chevron's $US3 billion-plus stake in Australia's largest oil-producing oil and gas project, the North West Shelf.
And it's down to two bidders in the MacCap-advised auction of UK investor John Laing Group's Aussie wind farms.

Happy reading,

Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd

Street Talk Editors